


The Wings of Butterflies

by T19K



Series: The Life of Butterflies [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Luke and Leia Switched, Canon begone!, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, Genderbending, He deserves all the hugs, Leia is canon!Luke, Little Leia, Luke Organa, Luke is canon!Leia, Male!Leia - Freeform, Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!, Obi-Wan Needs a Hug, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poor Obi-Wan, Switched Genders, Uncle Ben - Freeform, Uncle Obi, Uncle-Niece Relationship, fem!Luke, kind of, leia skywalker - Freeform, maybe? - Freeform, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 05:11:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7300840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/T19K/pseuds/T19K
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been said that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings could cause a storm on the other side of a planet. It was just a small change, one that should've had little impact, but would change the galaxy forever. This time, it was the female Skywalker who became a Jedi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - The Wings of Butterflies

_It has been said that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings could cause a tornado on the other side of a planet. That a single change could rewrite a person's entire life._

The brunette gasped in pain, her body contracting heavily in response. "You must push," the medical droid next to her, a Chroon-Tan B-Machine, tonelessly urged its agonized patient.

The words reached her through the pain, and she tried to push through the haze of agony, before she screamed and fell silent, gasping, "I … can't!"

She shuddered violently, "Where is he? Ani! An-" her desperate pleadings for a husband that would never come were interrupted by another contraction.

From the sidelines, a ginger-haired man watched, torn between worry and mind-numbing sadness at his failure. Why? Why hadn't he seen the signs? Why hadn't he tried to be a better mentor? Act as a true father-figure to him, as his own teacher had, like that man who had eventually turned his student to the Dark Side?

Hands clutching at the table beneath her, Padme Skywalker let out another agonized scream, far louder than any of her previous cries, that interrupted Obi-Wan Kenobi's dark musings. As her spasms eased, a second cry pierced through the fog that clouded Obi-Wan's mind. He moved over to the midwife droid, who passed him a small form wrapped in a white towel.

As he shifted to where the head of the newborn's mother lay, the baby suddenly halted its crying and opened its eyes. The bright blue irises of startling intensity stunned Obi-Wan. He had only seen that exact colour once before. The eyes were carbon copies of the child's father's. Eyes that Obi-Wan had not seen since before he'd left for his final confrontation with General Grievous. Shaking himself mentally before he could lapse into memories of burning and sickly yellow, he placed the baby next to Padme's head.

_A single change._

"It's a girl," Obi-Wan told her, begging the Force to let the inheritor of Anakin's eyes grow up with at least one of her parents.

"Leia," Padme gasped, her face breaking into a pain-ridden, but sincere, smile, "Oh, my sweet Leia … " She reached out to touch her daughter's face, only lingering a brief moment before another contraction wracked her body.

A few seconds later, the cry of another infant filled the room. Obi-Wan took the child from the droid and laid it next to its sister and mother.

"It's a boy," he was having trouble forming the words as he saw Padme fading away before him.

"Luke … oh Luke," she whispered. Luke's wails quieted down almost immediately, his eyes stretched as wide as they could at the women smiling tiredly at him. In any other situation, it would've been comical, but there wasn't a single person in the birthing or observing room who was capable of bringing themselves to even think about smiling.

Padme moved her fingers to her babies' hands and their tiny fingers wrapped around one of hers instinctively as they cooed at her, "They're beautiful … Ani would be so proud … " her voice was growing fainter with every word.

"Obi-Wan … " she turned her head weakly towards the Jedi master, "There's good in him … I know … I know there's still … " Padme Skywalker's voice faded off as she passed away, and her hands slackened in the grip of the newborns' small hands.

Her twins, Leia and Luke, immediately began  crying, harder and more distraught than their previous howls. Obi-Wan fought off the impending numbness, and picked up the twins. Leia calmed down a little, no longer wailing, although tears still streamed down her face. Luke only cried harder, his cries becoming more and more heart-rending.

His steps heavy, Obi-Wan left the birthing room. He met Bail Organa and Yoda in the observation room, both looking older and more worn down than when he last saw them. Yoda took one look at the newborns, sighed heavily, and beckoned for Obi-Wan to follow him to the conference room on Bail's ship. Bail did his best to fight off the sadness welling within him, and offered to take one of the twins. Obi-Wan passed Luke to him, whose wails were quieting down to whimpers.

After giving the babies to a waiting nurse, the Jedi and the senator followed Yoda, both silent and lost in their mourning. Upon reaching the white room, Obi-Wan and Bail sat in the chairs by the wizened Master. They didn't speak, too overwhelmed by the tragedy that had taken place.

Eventually, Yoda ‒ hunched over and seeming older than ever ‒ spoke, "Hidden, safe, the children must be kept. If learn of them the Emperor does, take them he will. In the Force, strong they will be. Split up, they must be. Together, too noticeable."

_Can rewrite the destiny of an entire galaxy._

Obi-Wan spoke up, his voice rough with grief, "I will take the girl to Tatooine. She has family there. I will watch over her."

Yoda considered the younger Jedi, who stared back at him, unyielding.

"Train her, you will?" he eventually asked.

Obi-Wan gave a stiff nod, his features displaying the stubborn countenance developed over years of exposure to his former Padawan and Master.

The green Jedi looked at the ginger haired one, and nodded wearily, "For the best, this may be."

Bail spoke up, breaking the short silence that followed Yoda's agreement, "I will take the boy and raise him as my own. My wife and I have longed for a child for many years. He will be safe with us."

The two Masters nodded their agreement.

"Into exile I will go," Yoda declared, looking down at the table, "In hiding I will stay, until lifted the darkness has."

"Master Yoda," the blue clad senator began hesitantly, "with all due respect, do you honestly think that the Emperor can be beaten?"

Yoda hummed, and then stated, with absolute certainty, "Have faith we must. If lose faith you do, lose the war you will. Take care of the children, and fall, one day the Emperor will."

Bail and Obi-Wan stood and bowed to Yoda, and began to make their way out of the room. But before Obi-Wan could exit, Yoda called him back.

"Is there something more, Master?"

"Come closer, Obi-Wan. Have more to teach you, I do."

* * *

Obi-Wan Kenobi gazed over the desolate desert, the small homestead outlined against the setting sun. A woman, Beru Lars, was waiting for him at the doorway.

He walked up to her, holding his precious bundle in his cloak. Passing Leia to her aunt, he bowed deeply.

Before Beru could turn away, the man stopped her, "Could I see her? It doesn't have to be often." _She's all I have left of him._

The young woman studied him, passionate eyes trying to reach into his soul. Appearing to hear his unspoken words, she nodded, a kind smile gracing her face.

Obi-Wan bowed again, grateful beyond words. He turned away, heading back to the waiting eopie. Getting on, he turned the creature to the Jundland Wastes, where he would remain until the time was right.

Riding the eopie to his exile, Obi-Wan turned back to see Beru handing her husband his niece. A small grin flitted across his features and he looked towards the sunset.

_Rest well, little Leia. I will not fail you as I did your father._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this idea came from an incredibly long class, in which I got a sudden idea. This idea was so ridiculous (and stupid as my dad put it) that it was hilarious. If Leia and Luke switched genders, then they would still be Leia and Luke. Fem!Luke would be Leia and Male!Leia would be Luke. Don't get me wrong, I love both of the characters the way they are (Leia is a major role model for me), I just really wanted to try this. Maybe one day I may write a fanfic with Canon!Leia as having taken Canon!Luke's place, maybe not.
> 
> I am likely going to be changing other things (and not just the (maybe?) obvious), so be prepared!
> 
> Up until about chapter 9, I will be posting a new chapter every Saturday. When chapter 9 is posted, the updates will likely be slowing on account of some real-life issues. I apologize in advance.
> 
> I will be revising previous chapters as little as possible, so be prepared for my writing style to change as it progresses (it has been nearly a year and a half since I first wrote the prologue).
> 
> Thank you very much for reading :)


	2. Space Battle

Leia Skywalker, was doing her best to not attack the vaporator she was trying ‒ and failing ‒ to repair. The recalcitrant valve adjuster on the temperamental machine was malfunctioning again. The slight blonde sent up a prayer to the Force to give her strength, but it didn’t answer, and so, swearing, she resorted to hitting it continuously.

As her thin but deceptively strong arm attempted to beat the apparatus into submission, her short hair gleamed in the light of the twin suns that shone in the sky of the dustball she reluctantly called home. 

Giving the metal contraption one final whack, Leia gave up on solving the problem the mundane way. Pushing her locks  out of her startlingly blue eyes, she checked to make sure no one was in the vicinity. After reaffirming that she was the only one out there (not that there was really any doubt), the young woman put her hand on the valve adjuster and closed her eyes.

Calling on the Force the way her adoptive uncle had taught her, she focused on the troublesome and stupid machine. A few moments later, she opened her eyes, pleased to have succeeded in her task. Leia sat back on her heels for a few seconds, content to enjoy the moment. Shielding her eyes from the blindingly bright suns, the young Skywalker looked up at the pale blue expanse above her, caught up in thoughts of leaving the desert planet  behind.

A green flash in the otherwise blue sky caught the girl's attention, and she drew out her set of macrobinoculars and focused in on the multi-coloured blasts scattering in the sky. As Leia watched the bright bursts, she quickly forgot about chores and vaporators, and, after reattaching the binoculars to her belt, the blonde practically leapt into her speeder. Working as fast as possible, she got the old engine running, and took off.

* * *

The man breathed in and out, centering himself in the Force. Focusing outwards, Obi-Wan Kenobi listened to the murmurings of the energy around him. Something was going to happen soon, the Force was telling him, something revolving around…

Feeling a familiar Force signature, he opened his blue-gray eyes and rose from his kneeling position on the sandy floor. Stretching slightly to restore feeling to his limbs, the Jedi Master walked to the door, and upon opening it, saw his precious niece pull up in her rusty vehicle much like her father ‒ recklessly.

Sighing fondly at the sheer concentration of Anakin's genes in his daughter, the wizened man exited his humble home to greet the young woman as she jumped out of her speeder, almost taking flight in her excitement.

The years had not been kind to the old Jedi. Guilt and sadness had caused him to age at a faster rate than the average human. Hair that was once completely ginger had but a few streaks of its former colour remained, and there were enough wrinkles on his face to ‒ as he would jokingly say ‒ rival those of Master Yoda's. However, his eyes, almost out of place with the rest of him, still shone with a spark in them.

"Hello little Leia," Obi-Wan stated fondly, "What brings you here?"

Leia's cheeks puffed out a little bit, "I'm not little," she muttered petulantly, and Obi-Wan was once again beset with memories of his former Padawan at fourteen years old.

He walked up to the short female and ruffled her hair, chuckling softly at the pout she gave him, "When you get to my age, anybody younger than you is little, and everybody older is ancient."

Leia grumbled a bit, frequently repeating 'not little anymore' and 'twenty years old' before getting back to her original train of thought, and almost immediately started jumping up and down with childish excitement, completely contradicting her previous statements, "Uncle Ben! There's a space battle happening above us!"

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrow, and decided to play dumb, having sensed the dark presence and lost lives earlier, for Leia's sake, "Is that so, little Leia?"

Ignoring the nickname, she  enthusiastically nodded her head as she stretched out her hand with the macrobinoculars in it.

"Yeah! Do you think it could be the Rebellion?"

The Jedi took the macrobinoculars and raised them to his eyes, never mind the fact that he didn't actually need them, and gazed upwards at where Leia was pointing. After a few moments, he returned the binoculars to Leia and stated, "It appears as if your space battle is over."

"What!?" the energetic blonde grabbed at the pair of binoculars and stared up at the spot where she was sure there had been blasts of a battle. Sure enough, the sky was clear of anything but the colour blue. Her mouth dropped open a little bit, "But I swear I saw…"

Obi-Wan decided to take the discussion indoors, before the binary  suns blinded the girl staring upwards in disbelief. He all but pulled the dumbstruck blonde through the door and sat her down.

Thinking that her beloved uncle didn't believe her, the niece started stammering, "But...I know it was there‒!"

The old man took pity on her and interrupted before she started monologuing about what she had seen, "I know you did, Leia."

The rambling girl stopped mid-sentence, "You do?"

"Through the Force, you can feel many things. The past, the present, the future, far away and near by," He leaned over to the young woman and poked her forehead, "Did you forget that already?"

Leia scrunched up her face, and upon processing his words, narrowed her eyes and thought it out. Eventually she muttered to herself, "Forgot about that..." her thoughts immediately snagged on another part of his statement, "You were going to help me extend my range next, right?"

Obi-Wan smiled at her immediate excitement and nodded. But before she could start leaping off of the walls, added, "However, you should probably be getting back to the Lars homestead. I foresee your uncle will be quite a sight to behold should you stay here any longer."

Leia giggled as she stood up. As she was starting up her speeder, the blonde paused and asked Obi-Wan the question that he hadn't answered, "Uncle Ben, do you think it was the Rebellion?"

The Jedi Master contemplated her question before answering, "Oh yes. It most definitely was."

* * *

Pulling up to the small homestead, the small female got out of the old vehicle with considerably less vigour than she had previously. Moving quietly, Leia prayed that nobody had noticed that she had gotten back later than she technically should've.

"Hello, Leia."

_ Busted _ .

"Hi, Aunt Beru," Leia replied, turning slowly as she waited for the chewing out about being late.

The older woman was standing behind her, eyebrow raised and arms crossed. A small smile, however, reduced the intimidation factor of the aunt's stance, "You were spending time with Ben Kenobi again, weren't you?" Beru asked, although it was clearly a rhetorical question.

When the short woman could offer no reply, her aunt just shook her head and beckoned the blonde, "Come on, the Jawas are going to be here at any moment."

As Leia followed Beru, she once again felt the insistent desire to leave her home planet. She loved her Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. They had taken her in, provided for her, protected her (quite insistently and strongly in Owen's case) and loved her. But the female Skywalker couldn't help but feel that she was meant for something more than living her life on the sand-ridden and hopeless planet she had grown up on.

"Leia!" It was her uncle. The Jawas must have arrived.

As Leia darted up the stairs of the Lars homestead and out to where her uncle was standing by the massive Jawa transport, she got the feeling that maybe she wouldn't have to wait long for her life to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians, and also an early happy Independence Day to those south of our borders!  
> So a little bit of explaining: Obi-Wan got to see Leia at least once every two months during her childhood, and when she started getting older, the visits (courtesy of Owen Lars) got spaced farther and farther apart. Eventually, after Leia started going out on her own (18-ish? maybe older, can't forget, Owen lost his stepmother to Sand People, so he would be especially cautious with Leia), Leia started going to visit Obi-Wan. Then Obi-Wan started teaching Leia how to really use the Force. He couldn't do much because while Leia may have been able to see him more than before, she still couldn't stay long, and he also didn't want to draw the attention of the Empire. Which is why she didn't know how to stretch her senses that far. She knew to trust her feelings, manipulate things, lift them, shielding techniques, and how to sense things within a few kilometres, but she hasn't been able to tap into her full potential.  
> I didn't include Biggs in this chapter because I didn't quite know how to fit it in. Let's just say he had gone back earlier and that's when he and Leia had their discussion about joining the Rebellion.  
> By the way, how would you classify things as from Alderaan? I couldn't remember, and that was a big part of why I didn't do the C-3PO and such bit was because I couldn't remember if it was Alderaani or Alderaanian. Although it was also because I want to focus more on Leia and Obi-Wan for this story (as it progresses, I'm likely going to start focusing more on Leia).  
> Please drop a review and some constructive criticism! What did I do well, what do I need to work on?  
> Thank you very much by the way for reading! ^_^


	3. Two New Droids

Leia  fiddled with an old commlink, trying to figure out the source of the malfunction as she stood with her uncle watching Jawas unload their sandcrawler. An assortment of old and decrepit droids were  already gathered near to where the pair stood, so Owen Lars walked towards them. Leia made to follow him but stopped when she heard the sound of her name.

Turning towards where it had come from, the blonde dashed towards the hole in ground where her aunt stood waiting. Upon reaching the edge, she leaned over slightly.

"Tell your uncle that if he gets a translator, be sure it speaks Bocce!"

Leia looked back at the battered collection of machines and responded, "It doesn't look like we'll have much of a choice, but I'll remind him!" She gave her aunt a nod and jogged back to where her uncle was browsing with one of the Jawas.

Upon reaching the older man, she gave him Beru's message and then knelt down to check an R5 unit that her uncle had decided on buying as he interrogated a golden protocol droid further along the line.

" ... very similar to your vaporators in most respects." The droid had just finished saying before Owen shot off a question, "Do you speak Bocce?"

The talkative droid  leapt on the chance to continue speaking, "Why of course I can sir, it's like a second language to me‒"

Owen interrupted what might have become a lengthy monologue, "Alright shut up," he turned to the miniature cloaked figure beside him, "I'll take this one." Not waiting to see if the Jawa had caught what he said, he once again turned and called, "Leia!"

Said blonde walked up to him and her uncle immediately launched into a set of instructions, "Take these two," he gestured to the R5 that she had been looking at and the loquacious machine in front of him, "over to the garage. I want them cleaned up before dinner."

Leia immediately started to protest, "But I need to pick up some power converters!" And visit Ben again, but Owen didn't need to know that.

"You can waste time when your chores are done," her Uncle immediately shot her down, "now come on, get to it."

Defeated and any shred of excitement gone to the non-existent wind, Leia sighed. She waved for the troublesome droids to follow her, already mourning the time lost on cleaning what would inevitably be dirtied again in less than a day. Shoulders slumped, she began trudging to the entranceway of the homestead. A series of beeps interrupted her dejected mood and she called back to the red and white R5, "Come on, Red, let's go!"

Hearing another set of whistles, the small blonde glanced back to where a short, blue and white R2 unit was bleeping frantically at the taller protocol droid. Brushing it off, Leia continued on her way, until a small explosion stopped her in her tracks. Sighing with frustration, the young Skywalker faced the clearly defective unit and checked it over briefly. Determining the cause of the malfunction, Leia called to her uncle, "This R5 unit has a bad motivator, look!"

Owen turned back to the diminutive Jawa and accused, "Hey, what are you trying to push on us?" To which the Jawa responded with a shocked exclamation and spread its tiny arms disbelievingly.

The golden translator tapped Leia on the arm and said, "Milady, if I may, that R2 unit," it pointed at the stubby blue astromech, "is in prime condition, a real bargain!"

Leia considered the protocol droid’s recommendation, and curiously had an incredibly strong feeling that _yes, that droid is important_. She nodded decisively and raised her voice so that her uncle could hear her while gesturing at the twitching R2 unit, "Uncle Owen, what about that one?"

The older man didn't give any signs of hearing her other than by asking the Jawa, "What about that blue one?"

Taking this as an affirmation to move, the squat droid extended its front wheel and‒whistling cheerfully‒began to roll towards where Leia was standing. Once the droid had reached her, the blonde female waved her hand at the two machines and commanded, "Come on, let's go."

* * *

"Oh, this oil bath is going to feel so good." The protocol droid gushed, "I've had such a bad case of dust contamination I could barely move."

Leia, not paying any attention to the droid’s prattling, mimed fighting off invisible enemies with a lightsaber, pretending she was in the Clone Wars with her father and uncle. After brutally cutting down some droidekas, the young Skywalker regretfully turned to her job of cleaning off the carbon-scored and corroded astromech. Walking past a pile of assorted ship parts, she plugged the small droid into the charger and set to work on making it  look as presentable as possible.

Caught up in her mutterings about 'stupid rock's and 'dustball prison's as she checked gauges and chipped away at bumps on the small machine, she didn't notice the taller one until he had walked up behind her, gleaming and freshly cleaned.

"Is there anything I might be able to do to help, milady?"

Leia jumped a little bit as she was brought out of her reverie. Feigning nonchalance to cover up that she had been startled, Leia stated sarcastically, letting out some of her irritation at being confined, to the translator, "Nothing. Not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock."

To his credit, the droid briefly considered her statement before answering morosely, "I don't think so, milady. I am only a third degree droid after all, and am not very knowledgeable about such things." He paused briefly, processing for a bit, and then added, "I'm not even sure what planet I am on currently."

Leia laughed sardonically and replied with a slightly mocking tone, "Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you are on the planet that it's farthest from."

"I see, milady."

Leia shook her head. "Please, call me Leia."

"Yes, Mistress Leia."

She had to give a small giggle at the golden droid's apparent need for formality, and chose to go along with it, turning her attention back to where she was scrubbing at a particularly filthy spot on the astromech.

When she did not offer a further reply, the tall translator decided to continue with introductions, "I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations, and this is my counterpart R2-D2."

Leia paused temporarily to say, "Hello," to the astromech, who beeped a reply. The young Skywalker scratched some more at a stubborn marking and commented, "There's a lot of carbon scoring here. It looks like you boys have seen quite a bit of action."

Always happy for a chance to speak of his woes, C-3PO eagerly answered, "With what we've been through, I'm _amazed_ we're in the good condition that we are. What with the Rebellion and all…"

Leia had been tuning out the protocol droid‒already well aware of his chattering habits‒, but with the word 'Rebellion', her attention was brought full-force back into the machine's one-being conversation, "You're a part of the Rebellion against the Empire?"

C-3PO halted his soon-to-be monologue, slightly startled by the human's sudden outburst, and answered, "Well, that's how we came to be in your service, if you take my meaning, mistress."

Leia had stood up to look the golden droid in the face as she hurriedly asked, "Are there any Jedi in it?"

The mechanical being tilted his head questioningly. "I don't believe so, mistress. A Jedi had helped in the founding of the Rebellion, however he was killed shortly after. There may be some, but we were never privy to that information, due to our position in said organization."

Leia did her best to hide her likely visible deflation and went back to nicking at something tightly wedged between two of R2’s bar conduits. "Well, little friend, you have something jammed in here real good." Remembering her previous excitement earlier on that day, she asked the taller droid behind her, "Were you in a space battle before you ended up on this rock?"

C-3PO’s reply was cut off when his mistress fell away from his partner as she managed to get the metal fragment out. As Leia climbed to her feet, prepared to let loose a slew of Huttese curses, she noticed the front of Artoo had begun glowing, projecting a slightly fuzzy holo-video on the sand covered floor.

The human being projected could not have been much older than herself. He was clad in dark blue pants with a dark belt from which two blasters hung. His shoes were polished and he wore a formal white shirt with a blue sash tied over it, clothes that looked vaguely military-like. He stood with perfect posture, his lowered hands clasped tightly together in front of him. From what Leia could see, he was fairly tall, likely taller than the average human. His neat dark brown hair was a little on the long side, reaching to halfway down his neck. His face was regal, with a strong jawline and straight nose, and looked slightly detached, although Leia could pick up some hints of desperation in his features as he looked straight ahead with a direct gaze. Leia regretted not being able to see what colour his eyes were because of the fuzziness and blue tint of the video, but guessed that they likely matched his hair.

The figure's lips began moving and R2-D2 began emitting a voice to accompany it. The man's voice was a husky tenor and he spoke with a polite, but pleading tone, "Please help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

There was a whirring sound from within the blue and white astromech, and the video began repeating itself.

Leia stared at the projection for a while, bright blue eyes unblinking, processing the message. The Force-sensitive female was unable to shake the almost overpowering feeling that _she should ‒ does ‒ know him_. Eventually she managed to shake herself out of her daze and asked the Artoo unit, "What's this?”

The droid bleeped something that sounded vaguely sheepish, to which the uncharacteristically silent 3PO burst out sharply in reply to, "What is what?! She asked you a question, what is that?!"

The old astromech whistled an answer, and his taller companion turned to Leia, translating the message, "He insists it's nothing, mistress. Merely a malfunction‒old data. Pay it no mind."

Unable to let it go as the stubby droid had recommended, Leia asked another question, "Who is he?"

Normally, Leia might have commented on the fact that the mystery male was easily one of the best looking men out there, but she was too distracted by the feeling of familiarity. Had she met him a long time ago? … Not possible. Very few people came to Tatooine, and Leia would have definitely remembered anyone around her age visiting.

3PO did not bother to wait for R2 to give an answer, "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, mistress. I believe he may have been a passenger on our last voyage. A person of some importance, if I recall correctly. Our Captain was attaché…"

As 3PO continued his rambling, Leia tuned him out to stare some more at the projection, attempting to decipher what the message meant. After she heard a break in the golden translator's speech, she cut in and pointed at the astromech, "Is there more of this recording?"

The previously quiet R2 unit gave a small whistle, backing up slightly. C-3PO immediately jumped in to chastise him, "Behave yourself, R2. You'll get us into trouble. It's alright, you can trust her; she's our new master!"

The little droid hesitated a little, unsure. After a few moments of contemplation, he eventually beeped something, which his taller counterpart immediately translated, "He says that he is the property of a mister 'Obi-Wan Kenobi', a resident of these parts, and that this is a private message for him."

Leia leaned forward to listen closer to what 3PO was saying, and the protocol droid, always eager for a listener,continued on. "Frankly, mistress, I don't know what he's talking about; our last owner was Captain Antilles. But with all we've been through," he gestured affectionately towards the blue and white droid, "this little R2 unit has become quite a bit eccentric."

Leia didn't pay any attention when 3PO began describing just how eccentric his counterpart had become, she was too busy muttering, "Obi-Wan Kenobi, resident, Ben Kenobi, _Kenobi_."

_Her adoptive uncle smiling sadly, eyes dark with pain, and saying, "I changed my name as well. I couldn't have anybody figuring out that I was here and alive after all."_

"Ah-hah!" She jumped up, childish demeanor fully in place of the blonde's formerly irritated one.

3PO  looked at her, wondering what her fuss was about, while R2-D2 studied her, before giving a short (and unnoticed) excited bleep.

"Pardon me, mistress. But do you know who he's talking about?"

Leia froze, having forgotten in her sudden excitement that she had company. She calmed down a little and coughed to hide her embarrassment, "Well, there isn't anyone here going by the name of Obi-Wan, but I do know a Kenobi." She turned to Artoo, "Does your Kenobi have grayish blue eyes and ginger hair? Usually wearing some weird robes over an odd-looking tunic?"

The blue droid whistled excitedly in affirmation, twitching slightly.

The short human's eyes gleamed slightly with suppressed triumph, before her attention was caught again by the temporarily forgotten hologram still playing. "I wonder who he is. It sounds like he's in trouble, can you replay the whole thing, R2?"

Artoo responded with a tone that sounded slightly crafty, and 3PO hurriedly translated, "R2 says that the full message can only be shown when in the company of Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Leia raised her eyebrow at the wily little guy and had to hand it to the astromech. "Well, I guess I can take you to Ben Kenobi tomorrow, before things get running around here, to see if he knows your Obi-Wan. But only if you behave yourself."

The R2 unit immediately replied with a series of bleeps that sounded affronted, and Leia had no need of C-3PO to translate its response, although she made a reminder to herself to learn R2's language. She liked the feisty little guy, and wanted to be able to speak with him without having to use 3PO as a go between. She giggled and her aunt's voice sounded into the garage. "Leia! Supper is ready!"

Leia faced the opening to the main part of the homestead and called back, "Alright I'll be there in a few minutes!" She pointed directly at the droids and instructed, "Stay here please, and keep out of trouble. I will be back later to finish, you still aren't fully cleaned yet."

When both of the droids gave her their agreement, Leia raced off to her food.

* * *

Leia did not like silence. Sure, she liked calm, but silence was not calming. It was deafening in its oppressiveness and meant secrecy. Silences meant words unsaid, tragedies unshared, secrets that shouldn't be, things that should be said, but left in the minds of those who already knew. In short, silences were nothing but uncomfortable for the female Skywalker. So, when the dinner table lapsed into quiet as the family started eating, she immediately jumped into conversation after a few bites of food. "I think that R2 unit we bought could have been stolen."

Owen Lars chewed slowly, leaving Leia in near agony by dragging out the silence she was so desperate to clear. Eventually, he swallowed his mouthful of food and questioned, "What makes you think that?"

Unlike her uncle, Leia did not wait to reply. "I stumbled across a recording while I was cleaning him. Says he's the property of an 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'." Leia watched as her aunt and uncle exchanged slightly worried looks when they thought she couldn't see. She gave no hint that she had and pressed for information, "I thought he might've meant Ben originally. Do you know who he's talking about?"

To this, Owen gave a noncommittal grunt, and the short blonde added, "I think he must be related to Ben."

The human male chose to reply this time. "Now that wizard's just a crazy old man." The farmer did nothing to hide his dislike of Leia's other uncle. "Tomorrow, you're going to take that astromech to Anchorhead and have its memory erased, and that'll be the end of it. It belongs to us now," Owen said, attempting to end the conversation.

Leia, however, had inherited both her father and mother's unyielding and endless stubbornness ‒ almost completely overtaking them because of the combination ‒ and continued, "But what if this Obi-Wan comes looking for him?"

Beru looked warningly at her husband, and Owen snorted before answering, "He won't. I don't think he exists anymore." The farmer glanced up at Leia for a second before returning his gaze to the plate. A mixed look of sorrow and disgust came over his face, "He died about the same time as your father."

_Jedi_ , was Leia's immediate thought. Her father died in the Jedi Purges. It had to be her adoptive uncle, or at least someone closely related to him. There were too many similarities for it to just be a coincidence. Kenobi, ginger hair, blue-gray eyes, weird clothes, Jedi. Her uncle clearly disliked both of the characters, and would do anything possible to keep Leia away from Ben Kenobi, even by saying he died. However, she just had to check one last thing.

Leia did her best to feign obliviousness and asked, "Did he know my father?"

Owen Lars's response was telling. He looked up sharply at his niece and said, "I told you to forget it. Your only concern is to get those two droids in working condition. In the morning I want them working up on the south ridge, working on those condensers."

Leia added _Knew my father_ to her mental checklist. That settled it, Uncle Ben was definitely getting a visit tomorrow. She decided to steer the conversation in another direction, one that she had been stewing over for a while. "I think those new droids are going to work out fine. In fact ... I was thinking about our agreement ... "

When her uncle didn't answer, she added, "About me staying on another season … ?"

Neither her aunt or uncle responded, so the blonde pressed on, "If these droids really do work out, then I would like to start using my savings to buy my own ship. It doesn't have to necessarily be in working order, but enough that if I worked on it a little bit, I could fix whatever wasn't working and go from there."

Under different circumstances, Leia might have tried to convince her uncle to let her transmit an application to the Imperial Academy. It would've been perfect; she could've tested her piloting skills against others, maybe learned some new things, get assigned, and then jump ship, and join the Rebellion. That’s what Biggs had done after all.

But, unlike Biggs, Leia was Force-sensitive, and from what Ben had told her, extremely so. If she went to the Imperial Academy, there was a good chance that her abilities would be discovered, and she would either be killed, or even worse, turned into the next Darth Vader. And that was something that Leia would do anything to avoid.

So instead, Leia decided to buy a ship. So long as it had the important parts, such as a hyperdrive, engines, wings and the like, she could get it to work. The blonde was good with machines, even without using the Force, and was very confident that she could get the ship to fly properly. And when she had finished the work, she could take her Uncle Ben and go join the Rebellion. Ben could _finally_ start training her to be a Jedi like her father had been.

"You mean, you want to buy the ship next year ‒ _after_ the harvest."

Leia was starting to get irritated again at her uncle attempting to rule over her. "Why? You have more than enough droids!"

"Harvest is when I'll need you the most." When Leia looked away, unwilling to listen, Owen added, "It's only one season more. If the harvest goes well, we'll make enough money to hire a few more hands, and then you can get your ship the following year." Leia stared downwards, no longer eating her food, just toying with it.

"You must understand I need you here, Leia."

"But it's another year." Leia objected sullenly.

Why must her uncle lord it over her? She could understand that he wanted to protect her, and keep her away from the people that killed her father, but why must he refuse to believe that she was incapable of taking care of herself? In fact, if he had wanted her better protected, he should have agreed with letting Uncle Ben teach her how to use to Force, and allowed her to learn sooner!

Convinced that Leia would eventually come to understand his way of thinking, Owen once again attempted to end the conversation, "But it's only one more season."

Fed up, Leia pushed back her chair and stood up. "That's what you said when Biggs left." She made to leave the room, but was temporarily halted by Beru asking, "Where are you going?"

Doing her best to reign in the sudden emotional outburst and not yell at her aunt, the blonde stated, "It looks like I'm going nowhere. I'm going to finish cleaning those droids."

As Leia stormed out, tears springing to her inherited eyes, she heard her aunt start to chastise her uncle, so she took a sharp left and circled back around to listen to what they were saying.

" ... to her." The kind woman finished her sentence to her husband.

"I'll make it up to her next year. I promise." Owen was unwilling to back down, unyielding man that he was.

"Leia just isn't a farm girl." Here, Beru's voice saddened, "She has too much of her father in her."

The silence following Beru's statement was, like so many silences before it, was deafening and oppressive.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

* * *

Leia was emotionally and physically exhausted. She had returned to the garage soon after her uncle's ominous statement, and had scrubbed, polished and tinkered with the droids, uncharacteristically quiet. Both R2 and, shockingly enough 3PO, quickly figured out that she didn't feel much like speaking, and kept whatever conversation they had been having to themselves. After having cleaned both of them until they shone, she’d  left the garage to walk up to the land above the homestead.

She left the entranceway, and breathed in the cool air that came with the coming dark and scuffed at the endless sand that covered every cursed thing on the Force-forsaken rock. She walked to the rim of the hole that opened into the Lars homestead, stopping when she faced the two setting suns of Tatooine. She sat down on the hard rock and dangled her legs over the edge.

Leia was imprisoned. Unable to do anything but act as a farming girl and play at learning how to use the Force, something she was born with the right to learn. She couldn't leave, she couldn't fight for what she believed in, and she couldn't follow in the footsteps of her father.

Which was what she truly wanted. To be a Jedi, to be like her father. To be like the man who made her uncle's eyes brighten in fond recollection, remembering times long gone, back when his life was brighter. All her life, Leia had placed Anakin Skywalker on a pedestal, idolized him. Ben had told her so many stories of his victories, their time together, how he was one of the most powerful Jedi and the best pilot. She wanted to be a Jedi, a starpilot, to fight for what was right. To fight tyranny and injustice, to be worthy of being Anakin Skywalker's daughter. But how could she do that when she was unable to leave a single crime-infested, sand ridden, _Force-damn_ dustball?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is very similar to how it was in the original movie, I know, but I promise that as the story progresses, there will be less reliance on what is already there. Also, this was written before Rebels came out, so as such, I am going to continue writing as if it did not exist (not that I don't enjoy the show).  
> Luke: Looks like Anakin with Padme's colouring.
> 
> Please rate and review! Please tell me what you thought was terrible, what you thought was good, what you hope will happen!  
> Thank you for reading!


	4. Messages and Burnings

The next day dawned as a typical day on Tatooine. Blindingly bright and uncomfortably hot.

Leia considered how she would convince her relatives to let her take the two droids out as she slipped into her well worn and sand-stained white clothes. Grimacing slightly at the feeling of grit in her clothes, the blonde stood up and walked out to where the garage was.

She was stopped halfway there by her aunt, who was going to prepare breakfast, "Are you going to want your meal to go, or here?"

Leia paused, and then replied energetically, "I think I'm going to have to have something extremely small. I need to grab some things before I start my chores."

Beru nodded, understanding her niece's need to avoid her uncle.

Leia was about to continue on her way, but was struck by the sudden urge that this might be the last time she saw her aunt. Brushing it off as best she could ‒ after all, what could happen to them? ‒ the young woman turned to her aunt and gave her a gentle hug. Beru returned it, unsure of Leia's sudden turn of mood.

Leia let go to look the older woman in the eye, "You know I love you guys right? We may disagree sometimes, but I understand that you and Uncle Owen do your best to protect and care for me."

Beru patted the blonde's cheek and pulled her in for one last hug, "I know. Your uncle only wants what is best for you, even if he goes about it the wrong way."

Leia smiled, and after letting go ‒  _for the last time_ ‒ started walking towards her original destination, giving her aunt a cheery, "I'll see you later!".

Upon entering the garage, she unplugged both of the droids from the recharger and watched as they powered up.

Threepio was clearly what was defined as a morning person, he brightened up almost immediately and proceeded to greet Leia with a chipper, "Good morning, Mistress Leia!"

Artoo was not. He awakened with a series of groggy bleeps and when he heard Threepio's excited chatter, made an extremely disgruntled sound and bumped into the golden humanoid, nearly throwing the translator off-balance and causing Threepio to begin lecturing him.

Leia laughed at the droids' opposing personalities, and gestured for them to follow her as she moved to her landspeeder.

* * *

Leia raced her old landspeeder to Ben Kenobi's hut, giving a certain droid numerous panic attacks at her breakneck speeds and reckless maneuvers and causing the other one to bleep cheerfully. She managed to avoid an attack by the Sand People in the Jundland Wastes, speeding away from their enraged howls with gales of laughter. In the back, a blue and white astromech whistled and hooted in excitement, while his golden companion cried about hating travelling with reckless drivers.

When the trio reached the old hut where Ben Kenobi resided, Threepio immediately proclaimed how he had never been so happy to be able to set foot on sand, while Leia rolled her bright blue eyes and Artoo did his best to mimic her.

Ben was waiting for them, one hand shielding his eyes from the glare of the twin suns, the other one giving a small wave to the blonde woman. Upon seeing the two droids in the landspeeder with her, both of his eyebrows rose to his hairline.

"Uncle Ben!" Leia took a flying leap out of her landspeeder, giving Threepio a figurative heart attack, and excitedly skidded into a halt in front of the Jedi.

Ever used to the blonde's energetic cheerfulness, the old man waved her into his hut along with the two droids. Droids he had not seen in twenty years. "Come in, little Leia. I can sense," here, he nodded at the stubby astromech and protocol droid, "we have much to talk about." For once, said female did not protest Obi-Wan's nickname for her, being far too excited to pay much attention.

Once the four were inside Obi-Wan's home, Leia immediately whirled on her uncle. "Do you know an Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Although the gleam in her eyes said she had already guessed his answer.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi." The Jedi Master was overcome by waves of nostalgia as he repeated the name slowly. "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. A long time."

Leia prompted him to continue, "I think my uncle knew him. He said he was dead."

Obi-Wan was no stranger to Owen Lars's dislike, and was acutely aware of far the farmer would go to keep Leia from anything to do with her father; so it was no surprise to the old man that Owen had said that Obi-Wan was dead. "Oh, he's not dead. Not yet, at least."

Leia immediately prompted him to continue with crossed arms and a triumphant look, "You know him?"

Obi-Wan decided to come clean with his niece. If he was interpreting what the Force was telling him correctly, he would soon have to jump back into the fray, taking up the mantle of Jedi Master Obi-Wan, the Negotiator once again. "Why, of course I know him. He's me." The old man looked at R2-D2, who was squirming in barely suppressed excitement. "I haven't gone by the name 'Obi-Wan' since before the dark times."

Leia fell silent at that, her excitement at having finally gotten her uncle's name correct dampened by the thought of the Jedi Purges. Although, she was unable to keep quiet for long, and jokingly asked, "So would you like me to call you 'Uncle Obi' now?"

Obi-Wan gave a subdued chuckle at that and answered with a quiet, "Whichever you prefer, little Leia."

"Uncle Obi it is then. It suits you more than 'Ben' did anyways." The blonde smiled, and then argued petulantly to the last part of his statement, "I'm not little."

The wizened man ruffled Leia's short hair and turned to the quiet droids. "Now who do we have here?"

Leia pointed at the tall translator, "C-3PO," and then the R2 unit, "and R2-D2. Artoo says that he has a message for you."

"Really?" Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at Anakin's old droid. "Well I guess we had better sit down, and see that message."

* * *

Threepio quickly decided he was unneeded, and chose to power down temporarily while Artoo was showing the message. Before the droid could do however, his companion gave a sharp whistle and whirled his head around. Threepio hurriedly translated, "Artoo says that the restraining bolt is interfering with his circuits, and that if it is not removed, a great portion of the message might be unplayable."

Leia shrugged and, feeling rebellious towards her uncle, pried the bolt off. Artoo whistled his thanks and Threepio said, "Mistress, if you will not be needing me, I will power down for a while."

Leia gestured for him to do so, too focused on R2-D2's enigmatic message to pay much attention.

After the light faded from the golden droid's eyes **(AN: God, that makes it sound like Threepio died or something XD)** , Artoo rolled to a position to where both Leia and Obi-Wan could both see the message, and the projector on his front started to glow. The young man was projected into the floor, the video sharper than the last time it was played, and temporarily it seemed as though the message would repeat itself as it had the previous day, but then a whirring sound came from within the blue and white astromech, and this time, the message was much different.

"General Kenobi," Leia glanced up at Obi-Wan who was watching the video with an indecipherable expression, "years ago, you served the Old Republic in the Clone Wars. Now my father begs you to aid him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person. My ship has fallen under attack, and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion in the memory systems of this R2 unit; my father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to Alderaan." Here, the young man's regal expression broke, showing true desperation underneath. "This is our most desperate hour." The figure's expression regained its neutral look, that Leia remembered from the last time the message was played. "Please help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

The message stopped playing and a burst of static covered it as the astromech shut it off. Leia watched as Obi-Wan leaned back, his hand tapping his mouth in contemplation. This was one of the rare times when Leia willingly waited out the silence, knowing that the old man would eventually speak.

Eventually, the Jedi looked at his blue-eyed niece‒ _so much like her father_ ‒and leaned forward. "It looks as if the time that you have been waiting so eagerly for has come, little Leia."

Leia tilted her head, ignoring the use of the nickname. "What do you mean, Uncle Obi?"

"It appears as if it is time for you to start learning to become a Jedi, and come with me to Alderaan."

"Alderaan?" Leia's eyebrows shot up. She certainly hadn't been expecting her opportunity for escape to come so quickly.

"Yes, Alderaan. That reminds me," Obi-Wan stood up, and walked over to a cabinet, where he began rummaging through it. "I have something here for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, and I feel it is well past time for that to happen."

Leia stood up as well and followed him. "What is it?"

Obi-Wan turned around and presented Leia with a long metallic cylinder. Leia's eyes gleamed, hoping that this was what she thought it was. "Your father's lightsaber."

The blonde Skywalker took the weapon with an awestruck expression. When Obi-Wan stood back and gestured for her to try it, Leia pressed the button to activate the fabled weapon, a bright blue blade springing from the hilt. She swung it around a little, testing it, her look of wonder never fading. After a few swings, the Jedi-to-be deactivated the weapon, awe still on her face. She turned to Obi-Wan, who was watching with an expression of wistfulness, and said, "What will I tell my aunt and uncle?"

Obi-Wan contemplated the question and answered, "That it is time for you to fulfill your destiny. And that one must do as one feels is right."

* * *

Obi-Wan decided to come with Leia as she went to go tell her relatives of her decision to leave; the Force was telling him that something was not right, and he wanted to stick by the blonde Skywalker.

Leia spotted a dark pillar of smoke rising into the sky close by and veered towards it. It wasn't often that fires sprang up on this part of Tatooine, and it was possible that someone needed their help.

Pulling up next to a smoking sandcrawler, the group saw heaps of crumpled Jawas. Leia sprang out of the speeder and raced to the nearest body, while Obi-Wan and the two droids followed at a calmer pace.

The short woman ran back and forth, checking on all of the little cloaked humanoids, but unable to find a single one still alive. She dashed back to where the other human was standing, who had already determined that none were left alive. She paused temporarily by some depressions in the sand and studied them before reaching Obi-Wan.

"It looks like it was the Sand People." Leia pointed at some sticks and the indents in the sand she had been studying. "There's gaffi sticks and bantha tracks. But," she paused and looked up at where several holes were smoking in the shell of the sandcrawler, "I've never heard of them hitting anything this big before."

"They didn't," Obi-Wan refuted Leia's statement with absolute certainty, "but we are meant to think they did. These tracks are side by side, Sand People ride in single file to hide their numbers."

Leia studied the tracks to affirm what Obi-Wan was saying and noticed something else when she studied a dead Jawa near to where she was standing. "These are the same Jawas that sold us Artoo and Threepio." She looked back up at the old man, confusion clouding her features.

"And these blast points," Obi-Wan continued as he walked closer to the transport, "are too accurate for Sand People." He paused, and, reaching a terrible conclusion, stated gravely, looking at the short blonde, "Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise."

Leia had not caught onto the same point that Obi-Wan had yet, "But why would troopers want to slaughter a group of Jawas?" And then it hit her as she looked at the two droids standing close by, glinting in the sunlight. "If they traced the two here, then that means they would have learned who they would have sold them to, and that would lead them back," the feeling that she had had when she last spoke to Beru came back to her, and horror immediately came to the forefront of her mind, taking the place of any rational thought, "home."

Overcome by terror, she raced to where her landspeeder was parked. Common sense had abandoned her mind, she was completely unable to hear what Obi-Wan was yelling after her, not even recognizing that the older man was doing so. The frantic female leaped in, her fingers flying across the controls as she started the engines in record time. Leia took off, pushing the weathered machine to its absolute limits to get to her home, and get her aunt and uncle away before the Storm Troopers got them.

_Please no. I'm not ready to lose them yet._

* * *

_I'm too late_ , was her only thought as Leia saw the scorched and smoking homestead. The woman jumped out of her strained and coughing speeder and started shouting, "Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru!" as she jogged to the entranceway, hoping that against all odds the two would still be alive.

Eyes frantically searching, she managed to pick out a human form near the opening, "Uncle Owen!"

_No_ , she stopped as the black smoke shifted slightly to reveal the charred and broken corpses of the two people who had raised and cared for her for twenty years, _it can't be_.

Dropping to her knees, Leia couldn't tear her eyes away from the horrific scene. Tears started seeping into the sand below her, but the blonde took no notice, unable to think of anything but that the last time she had seen her uncle, she had argued with him. She didn't even say a proper goodbye to her aunt, just assuming that she would be able to see Beru again later on in the day.

The Skywalker fell face forward, unable to look any longer, her elbows only just managing to stop her face from being buried, onto the gritty and endless sand as her tears soaked it, not feeling the prickle as the tiny particles dug into the exposed parts of her skin. Why hadn't she heeded the warning from earlier? Obi-Wan had always told her to trust her feelings, so why didn't she this time? Why couldn't she save them?

How could she follow in her father's footsteps, how could she be a Jedi Knight that helps others, when she couldn't even save the two who had raised her?

* * *

Obi-Wan looked up and sighed. He could easily feel the pain and the grief that Leia was broadcasting through the Force; no doubt any Force-sensitive within two dozen parsecs could very clearly sense the agony and self-hatred the young woman was experiencing. He could only hope that Vader was far enough away that he couldn't feel the immense disturbance. As the old Jedi turned back to giving the poor Jawas a proper burial, he prayed to the Force that Leia would be able to recover from the loss of her relatives, and that this event would not push the young Skywalker closer to the Dark Side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feed the author. Tell me what I did well, what I did badly, what were the parts that stood out to you, etc., etc.  
> And also, please have a nice weekend. :)


	5. A Smuggler Extraordinaire

As C-3PO tossed the last of the unfortunate Jawas onto the pyre, Obi-Wan saw Leia Skywalker pull up her sand battered speeder and climb out. She had lost all of her usual vigour and cheerfulness, trudging towards him with mourning clear on her lifeless face. Tear stains glittered in the harsh sun and more continued to fall from her eyes, usually so vibrant and full of life, but now dulled with grief. He sighed, wishing that his niece did not have deal with the pain of losing family members so soon.

After the downcast woman reached the Jedi, he pulled her into a tight hug‒hoping that she would be able to recover from the horror she had just witnessed‒to provide some comfort to the poor child. Leia shook a little, and then returned the hug with trembling hands, letting out all of her grief in a silent sob. Obi-Wan didn't say anything for a little bit, letting Leia soak in the comfort. But after a few minutes, he eventually stated, "There was nothing that you could have done, Leia."

The grief-stricken Skywalker pulled back a little, allowing herself see the old man better.

"You would have been killed too, even with your remarkable abilities. And then, the droids would be in the hands of the Empire. Or, even worse, you could have fallen onto the same path as the Sith."

Leia was silent, her processing speeds slowed by grief, "But I could've told them! I could feel the warning from the Force. It was telling me something was going to happen. But, instead I ignored it. I could've warned them!" Her voice broke here, as she began to sob uncontrollably, "They could've at least escaped before the trouble came..."

Obi-Wan heard himself in the woman's words. _I should've seen the signs. I should've been a better mentor. I should've been there._ "That is a question that has plagued me for many years. 'What if I had done this differently?'" Leia could hear the self-loathing and shame dripping from every word that her adoptive uncle spoke. "If I had seen the signs that the Emperor, the Chancellor at the time, was Sith, I could have stopped countless deaths. The deaths of children, who had done nothing wrong except to follow the path of the Light; the deaths of my friends, murdered at the hands of the troops they had trusted; and‒my biggest regret‒the loss of your father, my former Padawan and best friend. But then, maybe it was meant to happen, so that those of us who survived, no matter how few, would remember this, so as never to let the tragedy reoccur." Leia sighed desolately and looked down at the sand, knowing that Obi-Wan was right. She also knew that Obi-Wan had never forgiven himself for what had happened twenty years ago, and still couldn't accept that he couldn't have done anything to stop it.

She embraced her uncle again, and stated, "I'm going with you to Alderaan. There is nothing left anymore to hold me back." Leia's speech picked up speed and strength, her resolve clear, "I am going to become a Jedi, and restart the Jedi Order. And I will ensure that nothing like the Jedi Purges will ever happen again."

* * *

"Mos Eisley Spaceport." The group, two humans and two droids, was on a cliff, looking down at what passed for a sprawling metropolis on Tatooine. Obi-Wan waved the other three back into Leia's speeder, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We should, however, be able to find a good pilot down there."

* * *

Even while still mourning her relatives, Leia couldn't help but look around in awe at the crowds throughout Mos Eisley; she had never seen so many people in one place. Her Uncle Owen ‒  _I'm sorry_ ‒ had never let her go to any settlements larger than Anchorhead, being the fiercely overprotective man that he was. Merchants were advertising their wares, droids and beings of all kinds meandering about the sand covered streets, and Leia even spotted a pod-racer boasting about his new vehicle. Her curiosity was quickly diminished and replaced by nervousness when several Stormtroopers appeared and surrounded the landspeeder.

The trooper in charge was quick to get to the point, "How long have you had these droids?"

Leia, knowing that telling the truth was not in the group's best interests currently, lied, "Since I was about ten standard years," and Obi-Wan was quick to add in, "They're up for sale if you want them. For the right price of course."

The soldier remained unconvinced, "Let me see your identification."

Obi-Wan just waved his hand and said, "You don't need to see her identification." The trooper repeated what the old man had said, and then Obi-Wan added while Leia's eyes widened at the display, "These aren't the droids you're looking for." Recognizing what the old Jedi was doing, Leia quipped, "That's a given, these old things are in the worst shape imaginable thanks to the damn sand." Obi-Wan closed the would-be interrogation by saying, "She can go about her business. Move along," and the speeder was immediately let through.

Leia complied with the Master's nudge and moved past the Imperial agents, continuing down the crowded streets until stopping at a shady looking establishment that the Jedi pointed out. After parking, she hopped out and shooed away an overly curious Jawa from the hull of her vehicle, while a certain feisty astromech zapped another one that was at the back. Threepio immediately started to admonish the unrepentant Artoo, "Now, Artoo, I can't stand those disgusting Jawas anymore than you can, but there is no need to be so rude."

Artoo replied with a short buzz that sounded like a raspberry, and Threepio huffed, "Whether or not that happened, we are in a rather dangerous place at the moment, and inciting the wrong individuals might lead to dire consequences."

As the droids were having their discussion, the blonde turned to her uncle and asked, "When are you going to teach me how to do that, Uncle Obi?" referring to the mind trick that Obi-Wan had pulled on the susceptible Stormtrooper.

Obi-Wan laughed warmly at the new nickname, and replied, "All in good time, little Leia. You still need to hone your abilities on communicating through the Force and I need to teach you the basics of fighting before we get to that."

"Really? Great!" The life and excitement was returning to Leia's eyes. "But I'm not little!"

"Yes, yes." Obi-Wan teased indulgently, and then gestured towards the darkened doorway to the bar, "Most of the best freighter pilots can be found here. Better watch your step though; this place can be a little rough."

The Skywalker straightened a little bit, and arrogantly replied, "I'm ready for anything."

* * *

_Probably shouldn't have said that_ , not even five minutes later, Leia was feeling an immense urge to stick her words back down her throat.

The short woman really had no idea how she got herself into this. All she had done was walk up to the bar to wait for Obi-Wan to find a suitable pilot, and then some human and his rodent-like (Leia was not too sure of the species this particular one belonged to) companion started pressing into her personal space, alternating between threatening her and boasting about themselves. Eventually, Leia got tired of it, and pushed back, telling the two to shove off, but then the human grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him.

Leia immediately started struggling, but stopped when a blaze of blue appeared to her left. It sliced through the human's arm, causing the criminal to reel back, clutching at the stump of where his lower arm used to be, and allowing the blonde to escape. The sudden release of her arm caused Leia to stumble back a few steps, holding her liberated wrist and her uncle took position in front of her.

"Best not to do that."

The rodent-like being snarled and pulled out a blaster, firing madly at the supposedly feeble old man. The Jedi deflected all of the shots back at his attacker with ease, forcing him to drop the gun when all of the blasts hit his shooting hand. The human and rodent stared at Obi-Wan, unable to believe just what had happened, and then dissolved back into the crowd, the man still clutching at the stump where his arm at been, while the rodent tried to staunch his bleeding hand. The bar was silent, its patrons eyeing Obi-Wan warily. The Jedi kept the blue saber aloft temporarily, studying the occupants, before deactivating the weapon, and resuming the visage of a weary and eccentric old man. The chatter once again resumed, although Obi-Wan was given a very respectful amount of space. He turned to Leia and asked, "Are you alright?"

Leia could only nod, staring down at where the arm of her almost assaulter lay. Obi-Wan patted her shoulder and said, "Come along. It looks as if no one here is what we're looking for."

Leia followed her uncle, confused, but trusting the Jedi, "I thought you had said that we could find a pilot here."

Obi-Wan hummed and replied, "True, I said most of the best pilots could be found in here. I said nothing about finding a pilot to suit our interests here however."

"Whatever you say, Uncle Obi."

Once outside, the two immediately shielded their eyes from the glare, waiting for them to adjust to the sudden change in lighting. They walked to Leia's speeder, when Leia noticed something different, "Where are the droids?"

Obi-Wan was also confused, "They should have stayed here."

A short bark came from behind the humans, causing Leia to whirl around in alarm. Obi-Wan turned at a more sedate pace, once again calm while his niece was caught unawares. The being approaching them was a great deal taller than either of the two, with shaggy dark brown fur covering the entirety of its body, a metal belt worn over one shoulder and a crossbow slung over the other. The creature, a Wookie was Leia's best guess, had a monkey-like face with surprisingly soft looking dark eyes. Leia stared at the Wookie, transfixed by the being she had never seen before, not noticing who was with it until Obi-Wan chuckled and said, "It looks as if someone has found our droids for us."

Leia tore her eyes away from the Wookie's intimidating presence and noticed the two droids standing beside the fur covered giant, Threepio doing his best to look properly contrite, and Artoo whistling cheerfully, "Where have you two been?"

Thinking that the two of them were in trouble, Threepio cried out, "I am so sorry, Mistress Leia! We were going to stay right here, but then I saw some Stormtroopers heading towards us and thought, 'Oh my, this doesn't look good at all,' and then Artoo‒"

The Wookie gave a forceful wuff, interrupting the protocol droid's lengthy apology before it became a monologue, as the giant rolled its eyes at the droid. Leia laughed and thanked the Wookie, and then a voice came from behind it, "Chewie! Why'd you run off?"

The speaker was a human male, probably somewhere between three and ten standard years older than Leia, and was also about a head taller than her. _Then again though, very few humans aren't taller than me_ , was Leia's petulant thought as she sized up the tanned male. He wore his ruffled brown hair in a cut just past the ears, and had dark eyes set in a good looking face. His clothing consisted of dark pants and a brown vest zipped over a white shirt, with a well-used blaster displayed prominently on the side of his leg. The man strode up to the Wookie with a confident attitude, his entire demeanour screaming 'roguish and reckless, yes, you want me'.

The Wookie, Chewie, grunted out a reply while waving a paw to the droids. Obi-Wan got a look on his face ‒ had Leia lived through the Clone Wars, she would have recognized this as his 'Ah-hah! Plan!' expression ‒ and moved up to the younger man, tapping him on the shoulder. The male tensed up slightly at Obi-Wan's touch, and turned towards the Jedi, hand reflexively grasping at the blaster, "What do you want?"

"Pardon me, young one, but do you have a moment?" Obi-Wan asked while Leia stepped up beside him, eyes watching the hand near the gun, ready to push her uncle out of the way at any moment.

The male stayed silent, his jaw working slightly. Eventually, his furry friend growled out something, and he relaxed slightly. "Maybe, why?"

Obi-Wan asked, "Do you offer transportation services off planet?" When the human nodded, Obi-Wan motioned towards the bar that he and Leia had just exited, and said, "I have a proposition for you."

The young man stiffened again, but followed the two when Chewie huffed and nudged him. Leia looked back at the droids and called, "We'll be back soon. Do not wander off."

The bar patrons noticed that the crazy old man with a lightsaber had returned, and parted around the four, not wanting to get within cutting distance. The group sat around a table in a back corner, so as to keep others from hearing their conversation.

"My niece," Obi-Wan inclined his head a bit in the blonde's direction, "and I are in need of fast passage to Alderaan with our two droids. Would you be willing to take us?"

"Fast ship is no problem, but is what's the reason for wanting to leave so quickly?"

"Let's just say that if Imperial entanglements were avoided, and no questions were asked, it would be much appreciated."

The brunet considered the request, while the other three around the table were silent, waiting for his response. While it only took him a few minutes to finish thinking it through, for Leia it felt like time was slowing to a meandering crawl. _Please say yes, please say yes, please sa_ ‒

"If that's what you need, then it will cost you extra."

Obi-Wan waited, prompting for the price.

"Ten thousand. At least half in advance."

"What?!" Leia's eyes bugged slightly at the figure presented. "We could practically buy our own ship for that amount!"

The male raised an eyebrow at the incredulity she was displaying, "And who, do tell, will fly it? _You_?"

Leia rose to the challenge, incensed at the implications in the question, "Sure thing. Just point me to the nearest starship dealership. I'll see you in space." She crossed her arms and leaned forward, defiance clear on her face.

Obi-Wan placed a hand on the furious female's arm, a silent reprimand, and interjected, "We can pay you two thousand now, and then another fifteen upon our arrival at Alderaan," before the conversation got any more heated.

The pilot looked incredulously at the old man, no doubt wondering if he was bluffing. "Seventeen thousand," he responded, making the statement sound like a question.

The Jedi Master slowly nodded, a small smile on his face, sensing that he would eventually agree.

The human sat back, and looked at the quiet Wookie. Chewie just looked back, not offering anything more than a tiny growl. After a few seconds of patience ‒  _hours and hours and hours_ , were what they seemed like to the woman ‒ the pilot turned to Obi-Wan and said, "I guess you guys got yourself a ship. We'll be leaving as soon as you're ready. The _Millennium Falcon_ , in docking bay 94."

Obi-Wan slowly stood up, and thanked the pilot and Wookie. Leia made to follow him, but then realized something, "Hey, shouldn't we know your name?"

The male lifted both of his eyebrows this time at Leia's statement, and replied, "Tell me yours, and I'll tell you mine."

The Skywalker faced him and stuck out her hand, "Leia Skywalker. The old guy behind me is my uncle, Ben Kenobi."

The older man looked down at where her hand was, until he tentatively shook it, "The fuzzy teddy bear there is Chewbacca, and I'm Han Solo, smuggler extraordinaire."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I truly am sorry that this is a day late. If anyone asks, I'm blaming a certain someone who enabled me in getting Mass Effect.  
> Thank you very much for reading, I hope you have a lovely day, and please leave feedback :)


	6. Disturbance

_ "His resistance to the mind probe is...considerable." A dark bass voice, punctuated by rasping breaths, reluctantly admitted. _

_ "A meer human standing up to the might of Lord Vader? How remarkable. I should stall his execution if just so that we could unveil his secrets." The mocking sarcasm in the precise syllables of the much older voice was unmistakable. _

_ "Do not jest at the power of the Force, least of all _ my _ power _ , _ lest it be turned against you." _

_ "As long as I am in command of this station, I doubt that the Emperor would allow that to happen." _

_ "Continue to test me, and we shall see just how important you are," the bass warned, his threat hanging in the air. _

_ Another voice spoke up, having just arrived, "The final checkouts have been completed. The Death Star has been declared fully operational. What course should be set?" _

_ A throat was cleared. "Perhaps the Prince will respond to a more...direct form of persuasion. Set your course for Alderaan." _

"What ... a piece of junk."

Leia was unable to help herself. The YT-1300 light freighter in front of her was in terrible condition; it honestly looked one small tap away from falling apart. The fact that anyone could consider the rundown and battered freighter anywhere close to 'space-worthy' was nearly mind-blowing. She came to a realization: Obi-Wan had entrusted their lives (and based off of what Artoo's message had said, the fate of the entire Rebellion) into the hands of a sheer lunatic.

The short female turned to the old man beside her, and stated bluntly, "We're going to die if we take this heap of scrap metal."

Obi-Wan shook his head fondly, and an irritated voice cut him off before he could speak.

"Hey!" Han Solo strode up to the blonde, intent on knocking her down a few pegs, "Just because she doesn't look like much, doesn't mean she doesn't got it where it counts, missy! This ship finished the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs, and has outrun Imperial cruisers. As in the big  _ Corellian bulk cruiser _ ones. Didn't anyone tell you to not judge something by its appearance?"

Leia raised one blonde eyebrow at the irritated pilot, and was about to reply snarkily, but was silenced by the pointed look that her uncle was giving her. She huffed and muttered, "There's a difference between judging something by its appearance and staking your life on it."

The Corellian's eyes flashed, but before he could retort, a bark came from the Wookie beside the cruiser, cutting him off.

Han started heading back to finish the  _ Falcon _ 's pre-flight checks, but not before growling, "We'll continue this  _ lovely _ conversation later," at the smug Skywalker.

"You know, little Leia," Obi-Wan's amused voice sounded from beside Leia, "angering our pilot might not be the wisest course of action. You might end up floating in space if you irritate Captain Solo too much."

"That's right, Mistress Leia. The captain might even set that formidable looking Wookie on you," C-3PO chimed in, attempting to make sure his mistress didn't endanger them all.

Leia looked sheepishly at her uncle. "Sorry, Uncle Obi."

The Jedi ruffled his niece's short hair, "Just don't push the captain too far, okay?" and led the way to the entry ramp.

The sound of blaster fire interrupted Obi-Wan's lesson on communicating through the Force, and Leia looked up from her meditative position as Han Solo sprinted past towards the cockpit, yelling, "Chewie, get us  _ out _ of here!"

Taking the not so subtle hint, the group quickly got strapped in, while Threepio moaned, "Space travel. Oh, how I _ hate _ space travel."

A roar filled the ship, and with a slight lurch, the  _ Millennium Falcon _ rose and began ascending to the atmosphere. Leia was unable to hide her excitement as she was pressed down into her seat; she was finally leaving Tatooine! She was free of the oppressive dustball!

Artoo whistled cheerfully, clearly feeling the opposite of his golden companion, who was quietly wailing, "Dangerous! This is much, much too dangerous!"

A sudden jolt shot through the beat-up cruiser, causing the four to jerk. Impatient and curious as always, Leia threw off her straps and rushed to the cockpit, Obi-Wan close behind her. Upon reaching it, the Skywalker stopped dead, awe depriving her of all thought. Stars filled the viewport in front of her, fascinating with their distant lights to the female. Something she had dreamt of for so many years, and they were right  _ there _ , seeming close enough to touch. It was only after the old Jedi pushed a little on her shoulder that she noticed the human and Wookie yelling at each other from their position in front of the controls.

"There are two Star Destroyers coming in, they're going to try and cut us off!" Han said, focused on some indicators.

Another shock sent Leia stumbling forward, "Can't you outrun them?!"

She shifted sideways so that she fell into the chair behind the captain.

"No need to worry your pretty little head! We'll lose them." Han threw the  _ Falcon _ into a downwards dive, a reckless grin forming on his face, "And so begins the fun!"

Chewie growled at the pilot, to which he replied, "Give it a few moments! We'll be fine!"

Suddenly, a red light began flashing on the control panel, a small beeping noise joining it. The woman pointed at it, urgently asking, "Why's that flashing?"

"That," the human pilot slapped Leia's hand away from the control panel, "means that we're losing the deflector shield." Han flipped a few switches and ordered, "Get back there and strap yourselves in. We're jumping to lightspeed."

Both of the Force-sensitives hurried back to where the droids were, buckling in. Leia turned to her uncle and said, with as much seriousness she could muster, "If we die because of this ship, I'm blaming it all on you."

* * *

_ "I have decided that the best way to test this station's destructive power would be on your home planet Alderaan." A triumphant tone, fully expecting the Prince to give in. _

"Relax. Nothing will happen unless you are centered.  _ Focus _ ." Obi-Wan instructed, watching the woman who was sitting on the floor.

Leia breathed in and out, trying to focus. She reached towards the Force, letting the feeling of it flow over her. Her features slackened as the blonde relaxed, immersing herself as much as possible. Obi-Wan waited until she nodded before sending out a mental prod.

**_-Can you hear this?-_ **

Leia's eyes flew open, but she quickly reasserted herself and reached out again. Straining with the effort of doing something so unfamiliar with her, she did her best to reply to the Jedi the same way, _**-Y**_ **_es!-_ **

Obi-Wan smiled, proud that the young Skywalker had picked up the technique so quickly. _-_ **_That's good! And with some practice, you will be able to do it without even having to think about it.-_ **

The excitable blonde jumped up, and ‒ blue eyes shining at her achievement ‒ exclaimed, "I did it!"

The wizened old man nodded with pride at his niece's ability, "Yes, you did, little Leia. And now, it is time for you to learn some lightsaber techniques."

He pulled out a small remote and a helmet from behind his back, "Let me show you the way I learned it."

_ "You wouldn't dare. This is committing an act of terrorism against a loyal and peaceful Imperial planet with no weapons. Doing this would prove you worse than the Rebellion." _

Obi-Wan waited until Leia unclipped her father's lightsaber from her belt, and presented her with the helmet, "Put this on. It's the best way to let go of all conscious thought."

The woman looked at the helmet dubiously, "But with the blast shield down, I won't be able to see anything..."

The Jedi Master grinned, eyes twinkling mischieviously, "That, little Leia, is the point. Your eyes can, and will, deceive you. You must learn to trust your instincts."

Leia could understand what her uncle was talking about, after all, there was no way that the Jedi would be able to pull off the feats that they had done if they had just relied on seeing what was coming. On the other hand, Jedi didn't exactly fight blindfolded. She hesitantly took the helmet and fitted it over her head, blinking as her vision was blocked.

_ "Aiding and abetting the Rebellion is classified as high treason. Something punishable by death. With the Royal Family of Alderaan found guilty of this, the sentence falls to the entirety of the planet." _

Leia ignited her weapon, bringing the lightsaber up in a defensive position as she tried to think about where the remote would attack her from. Blue eyes narrowed as she heard a buzzing sound to her left, and she moved to cover that position, but was zapped on her right leg. The lightsaber immediately moved to the right, but was unable to stop a shot to her right hip.

_ "I have grown tired of attempting to be polite, so this shall be the last time I ask nicely.  _ Where is the Rebel base? _ " _

"You're thinking too much. Don't think,  _ feel _ ."

The woman jolted a little as another shock hit her, from the opposite side she thought the droid would be at.

"This...is a lot harder than I thought it would be," she admitted, fighting the urge to lift the blast shield on her helmet.

"Act on instinct. Stretch out. Feel where the remote is, feel what it is going to do."

_ "...Dantooine," the tenor voice said in defeat, "The base is on Dantooine." _

"Well, we lost the Imps. I told you I could outrun them," Han Solo strode into the room, pleased at having once again evaded the Imperial Starfleet. He was met with no acknowledgment however, as Threepio was watching Artoo and Chewie play Dejarik, and Obi-Wan focused teaching Leia.

"Well then, don't everybody thank me at once." He walked into the cabin, obviously hiding his hurt feelings.

_ "See, Lord Vader. It _ is _ possible for the Prince to be reasonable. Continue with the operation. Fire when ready." _

_ " _ What?! _ " anger and disbelief coloured the husky tone. _

Leia smirked, hearing the pout in the pilot's tone. Her attention was brought back to the tiny droid when it took advantage of her distraction and zapped her on her foot. Han's mocking laughter filled the room, and Leia clenched her jaw.

_ " _ I gave you what you wanted! _ " desperately trying to reason with the older man, "I told you where it is!" _

" _ Focus _ . Let go of where you  _ think _ it will go,  _ know _ what it will do." Obi-Wan said sternly, having also caught Leia's loss of focus.

_ "Dantooine is too remote for it to be an effective demonstration. But do not worry. We shall deal with your Rebel friends soon after." _

_ "No!" _

Leia brought the blue blade up, reaching out with her instincts. A sudden flash of  _ here! _ brought the saber to her right, deflecting the red beam aimed at her elbow. Heartened by her success, the blonde did what she had done before, blocking one, two, three shots from the remote.

_ "Commencing primary ignition..." _

_ A respirator hissed a steady rhythm as the young voice imploringly begged them to stop. _

She pulled the helmet off, about to cry out with jubilation, when an overpowering sensation of terror and pain broke into her mind, driving the Skywalker to her knees, shaking at the terrifying onslaught. She could vaguely hear some shouts from far, far away, but was unable to focus on anything but the agonizing screams battering at her. Suddenly, it was gone, silent, leaving the Force reeling and screaming at the surge of  _ death, pain, destruction, wrong, wrong, wrong _ .

Leia stumbled to her feet, attempting to recover from the onslaught. Another feeling of  _ no, no, wrong, death, so much pain _ caused her to stagger a bit, before falling sideways onto something. Said something stiffened almost immediately upon contact.

Leia looked up to where Han was staring down at her uneasily, and then she registered something, "What-?"

The captain interrupted her, "It looks like we're coming up on Alderaan." Han pushed her back to her feet, and then called, "Chewie!" while making a beeline for the cockpit.

Leia turned to Obi-Wan, confusion on her face, "Uncle Obi...?"

Obi-Wan shook his head, and‒sadness clouding his features‒said, "I fear something terrible has happened."

The blonde immediately shuddered upon remembering what she had just felt, "I think you're right."

Artoo rolled up to her and nudged her, hoping to offer her some comfort. Leia smiled down at the astromech and lurched sideways when a jolt ran through the ship.

"What is it with things hitting this flying death trap?" the blonde complained as she ran to see what had happened. "What happened?"

"We," Han paused to jab at controls as if they had personally offended the Corellian, "came out of hyperspace, and what happens? A kriffing  _ asteroid shower _ ! And guess what! No Alderaan."

"What?" Leia may know next to nothing about space thanks to having spent her entire life on Tatooine, but even she knew that planets just don't disappear. "Where is it?"

"That is what I'm telling you, kid. It's just not there. I've checked the charts and everything. It's just vanished, and  _ this _ ," Chewie yanked up, pulling the  _ Falcon _ away from a collision with a large chunk of rock, "took its place."

" _ How _ ?"

"Destroyed," Obi-Wan stated, his tone more grim than Leia had ever heard before, "by the Empire. That explains the sudden disturbance in the Force earlier."

Han turned around in the chair to face the two passengers, "You're telling me that you're one of those hokey Jedi types? And what do you mean 'destroyed'? The entire Starfleet couldn't do-"

Leia interrupted, incensed by the pilot calling Obi-Wan a 'hokey Jedi', "The Force is real! And if my uncle says it happened, it happened!"

"Kid," the Wookie growled, turning Han's attention back to the controls, "I have flown all over this galaxy. And I have yet to see that there is some 'mystical all-encompassing being' that is capable of controlling anything and everything."

"Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it's there! You tell me not to judge things by their appearance and yet, you-"

Leia was cut off by some sudden flashes of green light appearing in the viewport, temporarily blinding her. A TIE fighter flew past, its distinct roar filling the cabin. "They followed us?!"

"No," the old man was quick to deny the blonde's fear, "that is a short range fighter."

"Then why is it out here?"

Leia's question was what was running through all of the group's heads. Han Solo thought for a second, and then began chasing after the fleeing fighter, "This guy won't be around long enough to tell anybody about us. Chewie, jam its transmissions."

"...a fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own. There must be a base or something similar close by." Obi-Wan contemplated, sharp eyes studying the space in front of the  _ Falcon _ .

"Then we just have to get it before it gets there."

Leia noticed a shape starting to define itself, "Look. It's heading for that small moon."

Han said nothing, just proceeded to put more power into the thrusters. As the tiny ship and moon grew closer, Leia saw out of the corner of her eye a look horror growing on her uncle's face. Just when they were nearly within shooting distance of the small TIE, the Jedi leaned back into his chair, eyes wide with realization.

"That's no moon. That's a space station."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> Heh, I'm late once again, aren't I? In my defense, I have been trying to teach myself Java. While I may have experience with programming languages, Java is a nasty language in general, it grates on my nerves.  
> Just letting you guys know, as of today (August 1st), there have been some alterations made to the chapters above. Nothing big, just grammar and the like.  
> Anyhoo, please let me know how I did! What did you like, not like, etc., etc.?  
> As always, have a nice day :)


	7. Darth Vader

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor trigger warning: choking/strangulation. Vader being his usual Sith-y self.

"No," Han's head shook back and forth, refusing to believe what Obi-Wan was saying, "it's too big to be a space station."

Leia gazed at the moon-like sphere, trying 一 but not wanting 一 to see what her uncle could to make him say it was a station. The thought that the Empire, already formidable enough with two Sith Lords leading it, had built something that could rival a moon in size and, given its position to where Alderaan should have been, capable of destroying a planet, was nothing short of terrifying.

But, the Skywalker could hear the truth in Obi-Wan's words, and she could feel, as untrained as her ability to use the Force was, the beacons of life in the station. The blonde shivered as she felt the mass of hatred and anger that also resonated from the moon-like object. _Sith._ There was no other explanation for the dark and burning flames of rage that sent waves of pain rippling through the Force.

"No," her voice was trembling with small traces of fear leaking into it, "my uncle is right."

Obi-Wan, unlike the other three, did not lose his composure. Instead he remained calm and collected, despite the sudden surge of dread. "Turn the ship around," he ordered Han, putting every bit of force he could muster into his voice, "Remaining here will only put us in danger."

The pilot stared at the growing sphere in the viewport, "You know, old man...I think you're right."

With those words, the Corellian immediately began punching at the controls on the dashboard and told the Wookiee co-pilot, "Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power."

For a brief moment, as the whine of the _Falcon_ 's engines grew louder, it seemed as if they might have been able to avoid the station; but then the ship began shaking as it fought against an insistent and dominating pull. Instead of getting smaller and disappearing from the group's view, the massive mechanical terror continued to grow larger and larger.

"Chewie, in case you didn't hear me the first time, _lock in the auxiliary power_!" The Wookiee growled in reply to the sarcasm as he pulled a lever on the console in front of the two.

"Captain," Leia struggled to keep her voice from shaking and losing composure, "why are we still moving towards the gigantic-space-station-we-should-probably-be-avoiding, instead of away from it?"

Han swore colourfully, using a few words that Leia added to her own repertoire, "The Imps must have a tractor beam or something. They've locked on and are pulling us in."

The blonde's agitation grew, "There isn't _something_ you can do?"

"Nothing," Solo glanced at Chewbacca, and the worry that was already clouding the cabin spiked, "But those pieces of Bantha fodder have got another thing coming to them if they think I am gonna go down without a fight."

"You can't win if you go in with your blaster set to kill, you would die within the first ten standard minutes," the Jedi Master quickly shot down Han's words. "There are alternatives to fighting though."

 _But even then, we still might not get out alive_ , was Leia's private response, as she watched what could easily be the doom of the entire galaxy. _Are we really going to die here?_ the youngest of the four desperately asked silently, _There is still so much I haven't done!_

 _No,_ something, something very familiar, but foreign, whispered back, _you shall not die today_.

"Well then, what do you suggest, old man?" Han's patience was reaching its limits. "Maybe your all-powerful 'Force' can pull its weight and get us out of this mess _you_ got us into!"

"How big are your smuggling compartments?" Leia interjected, directing her question towards the captain, her eyes brightening up with an idea. "Could they fit someone as big as Chewie?"

"Yeah, so?" Han was starting to pick up on where the female was headed.

Leia didn't answer, and instead asked, "Could you rewrite the log as well? To make it seem as if there was only one person originally on the ship, going to Alderaan to pick up supplies or something?"

Obi-Wan glanced sharply at the Skywalker, easily guessing what she was getting at, "Leia 一 "

"This is the only way," she interrupted, "that all of us have a chance of getting out alive. We can't go out there guns blazing, and the Imps will never believe that a ship previously on Tatooine would have gotten this far without a crew. I'm barely capable of suppressing my Force presence to the point of fooling somebody _just_ capable of sensing it, and if Vader, or any Sith, is on there, he will easily be able to sense the presence of a Force-sensitive here. Our best chance is if I allow myself to be captured and convince them I am the only one on the ship and am unaware of my abilities."

"Who says they'll believe you? Vader was never the type to easily be fooled. And what if they attempt to execute you on the spot? At the very least, you will be taken to a detention center until they decide what to do with you!" Obi-Wan was getting extremely tired of the apparently inherent Skywalker stubbornness and recklessness.

Anakin Skywalker's legacy grinned, and an image of her father superimposed itself over her features in Obi-Wan's eyes, "Well, then I guess I'm lucky I have my uncle for backup, aren't I?"

Obi-Wan stared at Leia Skywalker in disbelief. Eventually, he groaned and raised his eyes to the lights flickering on the ceiling, "Why must I always be the one chasing after Skywalkers and rescuing them from dangerous situations?"

Han bluntly broke into the affectionate silence between the two, "I hate to disturb the lovely family moment, but," Chewie barked and pointed to the Empire's new weapon, which now filled about a third of the viewport, "if we're going to hide, we might want to do it now."

Leia jumped up and began to usher the other three out of the cockpit, "Well then! Let's get to it. Where are these compartments?"

"Down by the entrance hatch, under the floorboards," the Corellian had barely finished speaking before Leia ran in front of them and began to search for the droids. She darted down the passageway to where Threepio and Artoo were holding a conversation.

" 一 must wait until Mistress Leia gets back," the golden droid had just finished saying to his energetic companion, who made an incredibly petulant sound and turned away.

Leia nearly ran into the droids, but stopped just short of knocking the translator over. She immediately began lugging the two with her as she headed towards the hiding place, "Come on! We don't have much time."

"Pardon me, Mistress Leia, but where are we going?"

"We," Leia replied impatiently, "are going to this ship's smuggling compartments, where you are going to hide so that the Imperial troops that are waiting for us don't catch you."

Artoo beeped as he was pushed along, sounding vaguely accusing and Threepio translated, "Artoo wishes to know what you will be doing, Mistress Leia. As a matter of fact, so do I."

"Don't worry about me, worry about making sure you aren't found."

By then, the three had reached where Solo had said the compartments would be, and Leia waited impatiently for the last of the group to catch up. And when Obi-Wan and the others actually had turned up, the blonde was almost bouncing up and down with agitation.

"You! Get in here, and keep quiet! You let the Imps know you guys are here, and I'll send you to the netherworlds of the Force via suffocation in space."

The Jedi Master raised an eyebrow at his niece's words before growing serious, "Careful, little Leia. Vader was one of the most powerful Jedi in the Order before he fell. If you let him know who you are, there is no telling what he will do to you."

Leia's nervous energy dissipated upon sensing Obi-Wan's almost overwhelming worry for her, "I know, Uncle. But, I trust in the Force, and the Force is telling me that I must do this."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes and reached out, hoping that what Leia was telling him was wrong. Sighing dejectedly at the ring of truth in the blonde's words, he kissed Leia's forehead and said, "May the Force be with you." _May it keep you safe._

The station really was massive. Even the small hanger that the _Millennium Falcon_ was drawn into was large enough to fit several homesteads from Tatooine.

Leia sat in the captain's seat, not even attempting to dampen her nerves, as she watched the scores of Imperial troops assemble around the _Falcon_. She did, however, do her best to conceal as much of her Force capabilities as possible, and spread what remained of her presence over the smuggling compartments to cover whatever was left of her uncle's.

A harsh knocking reverberated on the closed door to the cockpit and a tinny voice commanded, "Open up! Or we will blast our way in!"

Leia called back, disguising only a little bit of the fear in her tone, "No need to do that! I'll open it!"

She hit the switch and the door opened with a hiss. The blonde turned around in the chair, stood up and regarded the two troopers pointing their blasters at her, "Whatever it is, I swear I didn't do it. I'm an honest pilot."

The lead Stormtrooper walked forwards and slapped some binders around her wrist. Leia started to protest, "Hey 一 !", but the trooper interrupted, "No questions. Come with us."

The two soldiers grabbed her arms and began to lead her through the _Falcon_ , ignoring her indignant cursing. As she passed over where the five other passengers were hiding, Leia sent a gentle and discreet nudge to her uncle, telling him she would be fine. As she descended down the ramp, attempting to verbally beat the pushy Imps into submission, she caught sight of a tall figure clad entirely in black, and a wave of black flames 一  _KenobiMustafarBurningPainPADME_ 一 washed over her.

* * *

 _This presence ... is one I haven't felt since ..._ Vader's entire being was set ablaze with the memories of pain and fire, _Mustafar. Kenobi!_ The feeling was faint, and concealed by another's, but Vader could easily distinguish the old man's beacon, no matter how long it had been since the Sith Lord had last felt Kenobi's presence. _Was it possible that the old man was there? Why would he be here? Unless..._

The Dark Lord was brought out of his musings by a young woman who was being dragged to him by two Stormtroopers who had gone to go check out the worn-out Corellian cruiser.

He was astounded, although he would never admit it, by the blazing radiance of the female's Force presence. How had such a brilliant signature gone unnoticed? Surely an inquisitor or his master would have noticed such potential. How was it possible for _he_ , Darth Vader, to not have felt it? Briefly, he entertained ideas of taking this woman as an apprentice, her raw untapped power would make for a powerful Sith ...

But then the Sith who was once a man, saw her face.

For a few seconds, Vader had thought he was staring at a woman from his past. The shape of her face, the anger in her eyes as she spat Huttese profanities at the troopers, even her white clothes dusted over with sand brought the Sith back to the day when he thought love would be his salvation, and a spark of pain jolted through what was left of his heart. The moment quickly passed as the child saw him and her flamboyant use of language stuttered to a halt as fear shot through the Force around her.

Pushing aside all thoughts of resemblance to _her_ once the three had reached him, Vader waited for the soldiers to give their report.

"She's the only one that was on board, Lord Vader. The rest of the ship is empty."

The Dark Lord temporarily halted his study of the light-haired female to stare up at the battered cruiser, and ordered the officer beside him, "Commence another search," the faint trace of Kenobi was leaving an ash-like taste in Vader's mouth. "Use a scanning crew. Leave no part of the ship unchecked."

The two white Stormtroopers and officer saluted, "Yes, Lord Vader," and the dark suited man began relaying Vader's orders to the troops inside the hanger. The short woman 一  _another kriffing similarity_ 一 stood awkwardly in front of the intimating Sith. Her head was down, so Vader was unable to see her expression. However, he could feel the dread permeating her glowing light. Something was greatly amiss and he intended to find out, like where Kenobi was.

"What is your name?"

She gulped and tilted her face up so that she could better see the Sith, "Leia, sir."

Leia.

" _Well,_ if _you are right, and if our baby is a girl, what should we name her?"_

"  _... I think her name should be Leia. I think it would suit her."_

" _I like that. If the baby's a boy, his name will be Luke, and if the baby is a girl, her name will be Leia."_

_It's not possible._

"Last name?" Vader did not let his voice betray any of his thoughts.

Here, a twinge of nervousness was added to the woman's already fear-filled aura. "...Lars...sir."

_**Lars.** _

" _Owen Lars. This is my girlfriend, Beru. I guess I'm your stepbrother."_

The Force gave no indication of any untruthfulness in the female's name, although something sounded...wrong about her last name, even if she wasn't lying.

Vader commanded her, "Follow me," and strode away.

* * *

"Follow me."

Leia's head jerked up at the mechanized order and stared after the dark figure, before hastening to follow. The blonde remained behind Vader, not even bothering to think of an escape plan, because he would sense it the second she thought of it.

The station was _enormous_ , teeming with thousands of humans as they went back and forth, doing their duties. If it hadn't just destroyed Alderaan, and if Leia wasn't in the company of the most notorious Jedi killer in existence, she would have taken the time to admire the engineering and effort that must have gone into making such a gargantuan station. But sadly, she was, and, for all her bravado from before she allowed herself to be captured, Leia's courage faltered greatly upon being in the presence of the former Jedi and feeling the full force of his oppressive aura.

The two walked down seemingly endless black and white corridors before arriving at an elevator, which opened upon their arrival. Seeing this, Leia had to wonder if the Sith had used the Force to summon the elevator before they got there, or if it was just programmed for Vader's use.

Vader gestured for Leia to step into the elevator, and upon her doing so, followed suit, enclosing the both of them into the small space.

Leia peered up at the massive humanoid, waiting for him to say something. But, the Dark Lord appeared to be content with facing the door and allowing the uncomfortable silence一at least for her一to grow. She pondered coughing or something, anything to end the silence, but decided against it, for fear for being strangled.

"Where ... are you taking me?" Leia's voice was meek, almost the complete opposite of the one she was using to throw obscenities with previously.

Vader allowed the silence following her question to stretch before answering, "You are being taken to a holding cell, where you will be questioned. You will remain there until it has been decided what your fate shall be."

"Oh, okay."

More time was passed in silence, broken only by the sounds of Vader's respirator, but just before it became unbearable for Leia, the elevator doors slid open. They stepped out to where five officers were guarding and monitoring a long hallway. The five saluted to the Sith, "Lord Vader," and one, probably the commanding one stepped up to ask, "Is this a new prisoner, my lord?"

"Clearly," the bass tone stated. Not bothering to let the officers take her, Darth Vader took Leia 一  _gently?_ 一 by the arm, and began to lead her down the corridor. He stopped in front of a dark door, and it opened. Vader waved a hand for Leia to move into the cell, but she was still, bright eyes unfocused.

 _This feeling..._ she _knew_ this feeling. It felt like someone that she should know, even though Leia _knew_ she had never felt it before. Wait, no, that was wrong. She _had_ felt it once before...when she saw Artoo's message for her uncle. The blonde shook herself out of her temporary stupor and walked into the cell.

The door slid closed behind her, but the ominous hissing sound continued. Leia turned around startled as Vader stood in the cramped cell with his arms crossed over his chest. Swallowing she backed up against the wall, trying to get more room.

"Where are you from?"

Leia furrowed her eyebrows, confused by the sudden一and strange一question, "Tatooine ... why?"

The sounds of the respirator stopped, and Leia felt a small twinge of alarm 一  _Is that supposed to happen!?_ 一 but they started again before she could say anything. " ... Tatooine?"

"Yeah ... for the past twenty years ... ever since I was born."

Once again, the sound of Vader's breathing halted 一  _Is this normal!?_ 一 and Leia picked up a sensation of deep, bone-jarring shock. But then, the woman felt a strong anger replace the shock, and the breathing reasserted itself, "Kenobi! Where is he?"

Alarm immediately filled Leia, and she prayed that _his_ Kenobi was not _her_ Kenobi, no matter how much logic denied her hopes, "Kenobi?"

The rasping from the respirator picked up in speed, "Obi-Wan Kenobi! The Jedi Master!"

The woman immediately clamped down on the fear that sprung up with the forceful words, refusing to let Vader sense it and discover she did know him, "I'm sorry, sir, but the only Kenobi I know is the crazy old Ben Kenobi, and I doubt he's the Kenobi you're looking for."

Irritation and fury swept across Leia and she nearly staggered in the face of the onslaught, "Don't lie! I can sense his presence on you!"

Something was pressing against Leia's throat, and she was struggling to breathe. Desperately, she clawed at the invisible hand, all while shaking her head, "No, no I don't! Ben's just a crazy old man! Please一!" Her voice was cut off as the grip tightened, and her desperate struggle for air became that much harder.

Just as her vision was beginning to darken, the pressure on her neck suddenly stopped, and Leia collapsed on the ground, drawing great, heaving breaths. Her fear-filled eyes flickered up to where the Dark Lord stood, his presence even more oppressive.

The Sith just stared down at her, not saying anything, before turning abruptly and leaving the cell. He stopped outside the cell before the door closed, "This conversation is not over." The words rung ominously in the room.

* * *

Obi-Wan shuddered, easily feeling Leia's terror at having just been nearly suffocated through their bond. He did his best to send reassuring feelings to her without letting Vader know.

_How far have you fallen, Anakin? To choke your daughter..._

_A woman in light clothes, her stomach swollen with child, suspended above the ground as her hands clawed at her neck, hung there by her husband._

He pointed at a spot on the screen, pinpointing where Leia was currently, "There." The Jedi turned to the Wookiee and Corellian, "If you go and get her, I will happily add another two thousand, maybe even more, onto your pay. I will disable the tractor beam, so that we can get off this Force-accursed station."

Han Solo stared at the image for a while, and Chewbacca unslung the crossbow from his back. Eventually, the pilot sighed and said, "Oh, what the hell. At least I don't have to worry about getting bored." It was time to commence yet another Skywalker rescue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I am sincerely sorry for the lateness. I have no excuse, other than being distracted by the fact that I am preparing for a vacation, and as such, have been slightly overwhelmed. Speaking of vacations, I will be unable to update for the next two weeks, so I apologize in advance for that. In return, the day after I come back, I will post another chapter, alongside the one that will be published on the Saturday after.
> 
> So, questions, comments, concerns? Anything good, bad, weird? Please feed the author! The more feedback I have, the more writing I do!


	8. Luke

Darth Vader stood outside of the cell, black mask staring at the sealed doorway. He looked down at his hand, the one he had used to choke the prisoner within. The prisoner, a girl, no more than twenty, and bearing a jarring resemblance to一No. Those thoughts led to pain, and guilt, feelings that no Sith Lord, especially _Lord Vader_ should feel. Vader turned his mind towards the faint hints of a certain Jedi hovering around the pilot. He wanted to enter the cell again and find his answers, the answers he _knew_ the girl had, but a part of him, a part he'd thought had long since been destroyed in fire and betrayal, chafed at the thought of facing the blonde girl again. If _Leia Lars_ was who he thought she was... Memories of a dead man were resurfacing. _Padmé…_

_A beautiful face, one of an angel, in pain, suffocating, pleading for his so-called redemption._

_**No**_. Darth Vader forcefully redirected his thoughts back to Obi-Wan Kenobi. He remembered the betrayal of his former master, and used the endless anger and hate that came with the memories to submerge himself further in the Dark Side, feeding off of the energy of his dark emotions.

Obi-Wan would pay. He would pay over and over for every pain, injury and curse he had inflicted upon him. There would be no mercy for Obi-Wan's actions. There was no punishment painful enough for retribution.

" _I'm sorry sir, but the only Kenobi I know is the crazy old Ben Kenobi, and I doubt he's the Kenobi you're looking for."_ Vader frowned, ignoring the painful pulling of his decimated facial muscles, having long since grown used to it. Those words had a faint hint of defensiveness and protectiveness, betraying the blonde.

The black mask turned towards the end of the hallway, and its body strode towards the doors to the elevator. Summoning the elevator through a simplistic use of the Force, the Dark Lord passed by the saluting forms of the black-suited officers, intent on pursuing一and ending一the source of the painfully nostalgic feeling.

* * *

Leia sat, huddled against the wall of her tiny cell, drawing in heaving breaths. Her hands were clasped around her head as she hunched inwards, trying desperately to ward off the feeling of a hand closing around her throat. Terror reigned in her mind as she imagined her neck snapping under the Sith's invisible fingers. The black flames signifying the Sith's presence were moving away一 _Obi-WanJediKill_ _ **Destroy**_ 一but that didn't make the girl, barely a woman, feel any safer.

_What do I do, Uncle Obi?_ she cried silently. Gone was her bravado from before, and she was unable to remember how she had had it in the first place. Blindly, she reached out through the Force, seeking comfort from any light in it. Leia could feel Obi-Wan doing his best to reassure her that she would get out and that no one would die, and she could hear the Force faintly echoing her uncle's sentiments, but it was so hard to believe when she could still feel the chill of the Dark Side as the black figure turned it against her.

A presence brushed against the blonde's mind, and she drew back, wary, until realizing it was also searching for any semblance of solace. Leia frowned. This was the same presence that she had felt previously, just before一 _No. Don't think about it_ , Leia instructed herself. She shoved the fear to the back of her mind and instead focused on the familiar-but-not light.

_**-Hello?-**_ she asked the light, hoping that it wasn't just her imagining things.

A mental start of surprise responded to her tentative greeting, and a question一tired, scared, and alone一answered her, - _ **Is someone there?-**_

A small sigh of relief escaped her, - _ **Yes. Are you also a prisoner here?-**_

A flash of pain was the answer, and Leia was drawn into flashes of memories.

一 _A dark corridor, the sounds of explosions and gunfire, a little droid rolling off, carrying hope with it. Figures in white armour, guns out. "There's one, set for stun." Taking one down before the darkness hit._ 一 _Being lead to the most feared being in the galaxy. "You are part of the rebel alliance, and a traitor. Take him away!"_ 一 _An older man in uniform, with a thin, condescending smile. "Charming to the last, Prince. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life." "_ Where is the rebel base?" " _Continue with the operation. Fire when ready."_ 一 _An explosion, lighting up the bleakness of space with fire, consuming family, friends,_ his people _._ 一

_**-...Yes,-**_ the simple affirmation held the agony of having lost, of giving up, of seeing no way out.

Leia didn't know how to respond to what she had seen, and stayed silent, doing her best to send him comfort. Eventually she asked, - _ **What's your name?-**_

The voice on the other end sounded almost wry, - _ **Luke Organa, former prince of the now destroyed world of Alderaan.-**_

_**-Really!?-**_ Leia's shock was probably felt clear through the conversation. They had found him that easily?

Confusion was the voice's一 _Luke's_ 一response, - _ **Yes?-**_

_**-My name's Leia Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you! I found your Artoo and Threepio units! Obi-Wan Kenobi is here as well!-** _

_**-Obi-Wan Kenobi! He's here?!-** _

_**-Yeah!-**_ Leia grinned, happy for having distracted the Prince, - _ **He should be turning up soon.-**_

_**-Wait,-**_ Luke paused, as if just realizing something, _-_ _ **aren't you a prisoner too?-**_

_**-Uh,-**_ Leia laughed helplessly, _-_ _ **I think I'm in the cell next to you.-**_

The silence from the other end of the conversation had Leia imagining the Prince from the hologram staring at her, dumbfounded. - _ **Then how are you in any position for a rescue?-**_

_**-Ummm, well, let's just say that it was the only way to get on the station without the others being discovered. Don't worry though, Uncle Obi has plenty experience in rescuing Skywalkers and somehow managing to save the day.-** _

The pause this time was steeped in exasperation, and Leia's smile widened when she felt the grudging consent from the other end, _-_ _ **If you say so**_ **.-**

_**-I've known him for as long as I can remember, of course I say so!-** _

The conversation died down for a little bit as Leia gave Luke time to process, despite her dislike of the quiet. A few minutes later, _A hand closing around her throat, her struggles to breathe growing more and more desperate_ , Luke spoke up, his tone curious, but cautious, - _ **How are we talking like this?-**_

_**-Well, my guess is that you're Force sensitive; it would certainly explain how you have such a strong presence.-** _

_**-What do you mean by 'Force sensitive'?-** _

_**-Basically it means that you're like me and my Uncle Obi, meaning that you can become a Jedi.-** _

_**-What?-** _

Leia would have answered him, but then her attention was diverted to outside her small space, to where she could feel the beginnings of a disturbance, - _ **I'll explain it to you later, when I have Uncle Obi with me. It seems like we're getting a rescue.-**_

The blast door to the cell opened with a loud hiss, and through the opening, the blonde Skywalker could see an extremely irate looking Corellian decked out in white Stormtrooper gear and carrying a blaster, "You just _had_ to get yourself captured, didn't you."

If Leia's usual grin was blinding, this one could power the entire station for a one standard week, "Oh, what I go through to save your ass."

Han scoffed and gestured for Leia to climb out of her brief prison, "Come on, it's only a matter of time before someone figures out that we're here." Leia did as commanded and briefly glanced to where Chewie was standing guard at the end of the hallway. She waved to the Wookiee, and when said Wookiee returned the wave, turned around to open the cell next to hers.

Just before the blonde could push the button to open the door, Han's disbelieving voice stopped her, "What are you doing?"

"Getting Prince Luke Organa out. That was part of the original plan in the first place."

" _Prince?!_ " The exasperated statement was left unanswered as a buzz signaled the opening of the cell, and Leia clambered in to stand in front of the seated human.

_I was right_ , the Skywalker noted with satisfaction, _he does have dark brown eyes_. The Prince was still wearing the same outfit that he had been dressed in in the video, minus the weapons however. His previously neatly styled hair was slightly mussed, and the brunet's features were drawn and saddened, even though a glint of tenacity and sheer willpower still resided in his eyes. There was the shadowing of a bruise on his right eye, and a small cut over his left eyebrow. Clearly the Prince hadn't faced the nicest of imprisonments.

"Well, now that I'm out of that cell, I can say this properly." Blue eyes bright, Leia extended her hand to Luke, "I'm Leia Skywalker, and I'm here to rescue you."

Luke Organa stared at her outstretched hand for a bit, as if having difficulty believing that the blonde wasn't an illusion, before offering a small一but no less thankful一smile and took it, "Thank you."

* * *

A rush of something akin to satisfaction swept through the Force, and Obi-Wan smiled in relief. _They found each other_. Although, the relief that Anakin's twins had finally been reunited was dampened slightly by the thought that Vader would have also felt the minor disturbance. The Jedi allowed a small trace of his presence leak into the Force, allowing it to permeate the station, to distract the Sith. With any luck, his fallen Padawan would be too incensed by the idea that Obi-Wan was close by to notice any other ripples caused by the Skywalker twins.

Vaguely reminded of the old days, back when the Republic and Jedi Order were still standing, the old man crept down the dreary hallway一" _Really, Anakin? Would it have been so hard to have had some_ colour _added?"_ 一" _Well Master, if we have the walls all dull and boring like this, the enemy might just keel over and die from boredom! Saves us from having to deal with them later after all."_ 一sticking to the shadows and using the Force to conceal his presence from the eyes of those who passed by.

Upon reaching the end of the monotone corridor, Obi-Wan peered around the wall slightly to see the console he was looking for attached to a long walkway suspended over a deep pit. Muttering to himself about the engineers making it difficult for old men to disable tractor beams, the Jedi Master quietly walked up to the console and began sidling along the edge until he reached the opposite end of the console. Carefully, Obi-Wan started fiddling with the controls, all while wishing that he had a Skywalker with him to complete the work in a far faster time.

Eventually一with a great deal of quiet cursing over the lack of available Skywalkers一Obi-Wan managed to override the system controls to shut down the tractor beam. He grabbed the small lever powering the system, and began to slowly pull it down. When two Stormtroopers appeared just where he had been a few minutes previously, the Jedi immediately stopped, not wanting them to hear him.

When the troopers standing guard started talking to each other, "Do you know what's going on?", "Maybe it's another drill,"一 _I would bet quite a few credits on the problem being related to a Skywalker._ 一Obi-Wan deemed it safe enough to continue. He carefully finished his work, and began edging around to the other end of the console. Using the Force to cause a small disturbance down the hallway the troopers were guarding, he waited for the two to turn in the direction of the sound, and then snuck out.

Carefully reaching out to the Force, Obi-Wan searched for Vader's location. It was not overly difficult to find the mass of seething flames, with there being the faintest trace of Anakin in them, stalking towards him, whispering _ObiWanKenobiObiWanJediMustSufferkillKillKILL_.

Feeling a dull pain at the sheer hatred now suffocating the aura of his once brother-in-arms, Obi-Wan began to head in the opposite direction from his niece, playing bait一 _once again_ 一to keep the Sith away from Anakin's children. A small voice in the back of his head wondered, _I wonder if this is how the people on the opposite side felt back in the Clone Wars_.

* * *

" _Prince?_ " Han repeated exasperatedly while staring at Leia's tag-along as they climbed out of the cell.

"Yes Han," Leia spoke as if she were talking to a child, "we are saving a prince. Try to keep up."

The Corellian scowled at Leia, but was stopped from making a cutting comeback by a sharp whine coming from behind Chewbacca. The furry creature howled and whirled about, his crossbow at the ready. Han swore colourfully and darted down the hall to stand side by side with the Wookiee, yelling to the unknowing siblings, "Why don't you damsels make yourself useful and figure out how we'll get out of here!"

Luke looked down at Leia一 _Why does he have to be so tall?!_ 一and said, "I take it this is the 'rescue' you were talking about?"

Leia sighed and pulled Luke to the side to avoid the blaster fire, "Real piece of work, eh?"

The brunet shook his head, "You'd think that when attempting a rescue, one would have a plan to get out."

Leia grinned at the Alderaanian, "Oh, I _like_ you."

The sounds of clanking filled the corridor as the two who had been attempting to beat off the Imperial troops joined the siblings. "Can't get out that way," the Basic speaking one said rhetorically.

"Well, congratulations, good sir. It appears as if you have cut off our only escape route," was Luke's mocking reply.

Han spared a second to glare heatedly at the Prince, retorting, "Maybe you would like it back in your cell, 'Your Highness'," before tossing a gun at Leia and pulled out a commlink, "Oi, Goldenrod! We got her and a spare! Any way out besides the obvious?"

A tinny voice came out of the commlink, but Leia was too far away to hear any distinct words, so she focused more on attempting to see through the smoke clouding the end of the hall and hit the troopers on the other side. Eventually, when Han began arguing heatedly一"What do you mean there's no other way out, you little一!"一with the droid on the other side of the conversation, she passed the gun to Luke, "Cover me."

As the Prince began returning Stormtrooper blaster fire with a vengeance, Leia knelt down and placed her hand on the floor. Expanding her awareness outwards, she traced all possible escape routes to the hanger she had come in from. Her eyes snapped open as she located the one with the least amount of danger. "Found it," she muttered. Zeroing in on the nondescript looking grate a little further down the hall, the blonde pointed at it, "That's our way out!"

Chewie was the only one to hear her, Han being too busy insulting 3PO's programming and Luke fixated entirely on the white-clad figures at the entrance to the hallway. He cuffed the nearest brunet一Han in this case一on the head, and when said human temporarily stopped his tirade to glare heatedly at Chewie一"What the kriff, you furry oaf!"一the furry creature just rolled his eyes and blew out the grate concealing their escape route.

As the two friends backed down the hallway, Leia began tugging on Luke, trying to get him to follow. The Prince ignored her however, his teeth bared into a snarl as he took aim at the seemingly endless white figures at the end of the hallway. Growing worried at the anger and hate festering in Luke's eyes一" _Never give in to dark emotions like anger, little Leia. Doing so will lead you on a dark path, from which there is no return."_ 一Leia began pulling more insistently, "Come on, Luke! We gotta go before they overwhelm us, you gain nothing by dying here!"

Luke glanced down at her, but immediately refocused on the Stormtroopers, his need for revenge winning against his common sense. His planet, his home, all of his people, gone. Never to be seen again. And they just _let it happen_!

"They wouldn't have wanted you to die this way!"

Luke hesitated, Leia's words finally breaking through to him.

"And when you die, because there is no way you can survive if you stay here, then this floating monstrosity would still be here, free to decimate as many planets as those in charge wish. The best way to avenge your people would be to destroy this weapon!"

Slowly, the Prince stopped fighting Leia's tugs, finally allowing her to slowly pull him down the hall.

Leia stopped in front of the blown out grate and pushed Luke down the shaft, then spun around to deal with the Stormtroopers just barely visible through the smoke. Using a quick Force push, she sent the group's would-be killers flying back, and then brought the ceiling on that end crashing down, blocking them from coming in. She looked back towards the other end of the cell bay, checking to make sure that no-one was coming from that direction, and, wrinkling her nose at the smell wafting up from the opening, leapt in, hoping that it would take a while for the troops to get past the blockade.

Down she went, not even trying to suppress her instinctive urge to shriek with glee, even while doing her best to ignore the growing stench. Feeling three lifeforms coming closer, Leia clamped down on her squeals just as she hit...something.

The blonde looked down in disgust at the junk floating in the liquid around her and attempted to move upwards to higher ground, "Yuck."

Han looked up at her in disgust from his position wading through the muck to the closed blast door, "And guess whose fault it is that we're down here?"

Leia turned her nose up at him and asked Luke, "Does the door open?"

Before Luke could answer, Han, irritated at being ignored, interrupted, "It's magnetically sealed. Yet another problem you've dumped on us," as Chewie began banging on the door, trying to bash it open.

Before Leia could reply to Han's comment, a loud grinding sound filled the space, silencing everyone as they looked around nervously. Han was the one to voice the group's unease, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Leia was just about to nod in agreement when the space suddenly began to get smaller with a continuous screeching, "Kriff."

Luke, who had been silent up until this point, moved into action, "Don't just stand there; try and brace the walls with something!" as he grabbed a gray tube and began to move it into position.

Leia moved to help him, and had an idea, "Han, I'll stall, get R2 to do something about this!"

Moving to the center of the rapidly closing space, Leia held her arms out, one pointed at each wall, and began to push with every fiber of her being. Sending up a prayer as an afterthought that no Sith Lords would notice the massive disturbance一 _Unlikely, it seemed like he一or it一_ _ **really**_ _wants Uncle Obi_ 一she strained with all her might against the walls, stubbornly refusing to let them budge an inch. _Come on, Han! Any day now!_

As the tension between her and the incoming crushers grew, Leia's focus narrowed down to her一her aching arms, the dark spots beginning to cover her vision, her pounding head一and the walls steadily increasing the pressure on her. Just as she was about to give up一 _No, not yet!_ 一the force pushing against her came to an abrupt halt.

The Skywalker stood there for a few moments, her vision flickering as she tried to focus on the present. She could faintly feel someone supporting her as she swayed back and forth. All of a sudden, Leia's legs gave out on her as she fell towards welcoming blackness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please drop a review, tell me what you liked/disliked, what you hope/think will happen. I adore all feedback, it gives me ideas!
> 
> Love you all ^_^ Thank you so, so much for reading!


	9. Legacy

一 _Orange, bright and burning._ 一 " _I loved you!"_ 一 _Pain. Endless pain. Consumed in an eternal inferno of fire and betrayal._ 一

一 _The only remnants left are ashes._ 一

Leia's eyes flew open. She felt unfamiliar arms holding her up, and jerked out of them, falling to the ground in an unspectacular heap. A sudden burst of definitely familiar masculine laughter, and a reprimand of, "Really? She just saved all of our lives, and you're laughing at her?" had her glaring up at the snickering smuggler and saying, "It's nice to see you too."

Han easily rode out the anger of the blonde, even while answering the prince, "It was her who got me into this mess. I'm sure that the little Jedi wannabe can handle a couple laughs at her expense."

Leia stomped to her feet and turned to face Luke, ignoring the irritating Corellian, but not before glowering at him heatedly, "How long was I out?"

"Not very long. R2-D2 managed to get the walls to stop just before you collapsed, and opened the door for us. The Wookiee carried you for a few minutes before you woke."

Leia nodded, "Ok." Inwardly, she shuddered, thanking the Force that Artoo come through, another second and Leia would have been completely unable to continue forcing the walls to stay back. She began to head off towards where she thought they were heading, only to be stopped by the sudden appearance of a squad of Stormtroopers rounding the bend in the corridor, "Force-damn kriffing Sithspit."

"It's them! Blast them!" They immediately lowered their weapons at her, and it was only thanks to a desperate dodge to the side that Leia managed to avoid a smoking hole through her head.

Frantically, she raised her hand to push them back with the Force, but found herself not needing to, when Han took out one of them with a well-placed shot to the chest. The _stupid_ smuggler ran right at them, yelling like a madman, and continued to chase after the troopers as they started running in the opposite direction, "Get back to the ship!"

Chewie growled, and began to follow as Luke called after them, "Where are you going? Come back!"

The taller of the two turned to the other and said, "Well, at least one can say he has courage, even though it'll do him no good if he gets himself killed."

Leia shrugged, her voice wry as she replied, "Well, then at least I get a free ship." She grimaced, "Even if it looks like a junk heap."

She grabbed his hand, and they ran off down another corridor, hopefully to where the _Falcon_ was.

While running, Leia tried to contact Obi-Wan, hoping for some advice, _**-Uncle Obi, are you there?-**_

The old man's response was quick and strained _**-Yes, little Leia, but not for long. When attempting to hide from and also lure away arguably the most dangerous Jedi killer in the galaxy, it is not advisable to use the Force for long periods of time.-**_

_**-Oh, sorry.-** _

_**-No it's fine, little one. I'm overdue for a little baiting anyways. In fact, it's all I can do right now to keep him from after** _ **you** _**.-** _

_**-Wha-oh, yeah. Sorry about that.-** _

_**-No, I'm proud of you. That was something that your father would have done, and I cannot fault you for it.-**_ Obi-Wan made as if to continue, but a sudden surge of the Dark Side cut him off.

_**-Leia, get to the ship! I'll keep Vader distracted as long as I can!-** _

_**-But what abou—-**_ He was gone.

_**-You.-** _

* * *

A malicious grin covered Darth Vader's burned face. He had finally gotten a lock on him 一 _JediEnemyFriendTraitor_. The old fool had left himself open just a little bit too long, and Vader had finally managed to pinpoint the location of his former master. Although, _why_ the Jedi had committed such a lethal mistake…

Ah. The blonde girl from Tatooine. The _Leia Lars_ that had shown such potential. She clearly knew Kenobi, and was obviously trained, even if not much. The girl would certainly be a plausible explanation for the sudden and immense tremor in the Force that had happened not long ago. Vader could recognize Obi-Wan's signature anywhere, and he would never have engaged in such a noticeable action when trying to remain hidden. No, the massive disturbance was certainly caused by Leia Lars, who was taught by Obi-Wan Kenobi. And then, the girl had tried to contact Kenobi, causing him to make a fatal blunder. One he never would have made before.

Kenobi had certainly taken advantage of any opening he was given, so it was only fitting that Vader do the same.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, the man who had left him with scars and burns that would never heal. Obi-Wan Kenobi, the biggest traitor of them all.

Darth Vader began striding down the hallway that would take him directly into Kenobi's path, white lights glinting off of the polished surface of his helmet. Officers and troopers alike stopped to salute him before continuing their frantic work, attempting to track down the escaped prince and those who freed him whilst they wreaked havoc upon the Death Star. The Sith Lord ignored them, his mind focused on one goal, and one goal only.

No more running. No more chasing.

The only thing left for Kenobi now is death.

* * *

Lines of red blasted through the hallway. Leia was doing her best to run backwards, letting Luke guide her as she picked off their pursuers.

A shot grazed her face, close enough that she could feel the searing heat of it as it passed by. The smell of burning hair wafted into her nose, and it wrinkled of its own accord, even while she took down another trooper in petty revenge.

Luke pulled her around a corner, and then came to a complete stop. Leia crashed into him almost immediately, nearly sending them both tumbling down a seemingly bottomless shaft. Luckily though, Luke managed to grab onto the side of the doorway and keep the two of them from falling to their deaths. He hauled them up, even while white menaces appeared around the corner.

Leia lunged at the control panel on the side, slamming her hand into the buttons. Her desperate action caused the blast door to close with a _hiss!_ and the two were safe, but only temporarily. The sound of footsteps clattered up to the closed door, and Leia shot the panel, buying them some time.

She turned around, carefully maneuvering around Luke, before realizing, "Ah, damn."

"Let me guess, the only way to get the bridge to extend…"

"...was in that control panel. Yep."

There was no response from Luke though, as he was too busy grabbing Leia and pulling her to the small protected area when more troopers appeared on a ledge to their upper right.

"Cover me," Leia said as she pressed herself as far back as possible and focused on the separated parts of the bridge. There was no time for discretion, so all Leia could do was hope that Obi-Wan could keep Vader distracted as she _pushed_ , using all of her experience with machines and practice manipulating them to shove the halves together with a crash. "Go!"

They darted across as the door behind them lifted just enough for a gun to come out from underneath, Leia bringing the platform down immediately after.

* * *

Obi-Wan's eyes closed briefly in exasperation. All that work teaching Leia to conceal her abilities and then doing so himself, and she then does all but run around in Vader's face chanting, "I'm going to be a Jedi!" the first day she leaves planet.

_Much like her father she is_ , a voice that sounded suspiciously like Master Yoda's came from the back of his mind, and memories of a snarled "I hate you!" and a blazing heat that Tatooine could never match repeated themselves once again.

_But not in a bad way_ , the other part of his mind argued, " _Obi-Wan, may the Force be with you."_

Obi-Wan shed off the remainders of his Force cloak, and stepped out of the shadows as the rasping breathing of the shadow of a good man came hissing down the corridor. His lightsaber that had served him faithfully for so many years was held loosely in one hand, but unignited, unlike the red blade held threateningly at him.

"I have been waiting for you, Obi-Wan."

"You must have certainly grown more patient then. Before, you were barely capable of waiting five minutes at maximum, let alone twenty years."

_The Dark Side of the Force truly is a fearful thing_ , Obi-Wan thought idly as a wave of the aforementioned power buffeted against him, Vader's undiluted hatred fueling it.

"The circle is now complete," the mechanical voice, so different from how it was twenty years ago, gave no indication of the mental battle going on between its owner and the Jedi. "Now _I_ am the master."

Obi-Wan shook his head; no matter how much he had fallen, Anakin had lost none of his arrogance, "Only a master of evil, Darth Vader."

A sharp laugh hissed out of the black mask, and Vader moved in, swinging his lightsaber downwards at his former friend, "Is not that the same?"

Obi-Wan stepped backwards, easily avoiding a decapacitation. His lightsaber ignited, and he brought it up into a defensive position, "Only the foolish would believe so."

* * *

Luke and Leia reached the entrance to the hanger just after Han and Chewie. Han made an aborted motion to the blaster on his belt, but stopped when he saw who had come up behind them, "What kept you?"

"We, uh, ran into some old friends," was Luke's wry answer, as Leia questioned, "Is the ship okay?"

"Looks fine, but who knows what the Imperial bastards have put done to the engines."

Leia answered, "Maybe fixed them up?" and then focused on the guards beside the Falcon, "Wait, what are they doing?

The Stormtroopers who were supposed to be guarding the _Falcon_ were distracted, obviously not doing their jobs, by something happening on the other side of the hanger, and began moving off to the side.

Han, long since used to taking advantage of anything and everything, shoved the slight female in front of him forward, "Now's our chance, go!"

Leia stumbled, and turned slightly to give the Corellian a stinkeye, but did not comment. She spotted two droids doing their best to sneak past the guards who weren't doing their job and waved them over, breathing a sigh of relief, "Come on, come on."

C-3PO scurried over, whispering his profound gratefulness, "Oh, Mistress Leia! I am so happy that you're alright! When Captain Solo一!"

Leia interrupted him even while Artoo knocked affectionately against her knees, "No time! Go, go, go!"

She began pushing the two of them towards the ramp, even while reaching out to Obi-Wan, _**-Unc**_ 一 _ **-**_

There were two presences pulsing at the back of her mind; one, familiar 一 warm light and laughter, playful "Little Leia"s and hands ruffling already messy blonde hair 一 and the other, terrifying 一 cold darkness and rasping breathing, demanding "Where is he!?" and invisible fingers closing around a defenseless neck.

And they were close by.

Leia turned, realizing with sudden clarity what had drawn the Stormtroopers' attention.

"Uncle Obi?"

* * *

"Who is she?" the snarled hiss startled Obi-Wan, allowing Vader to push him back slightly. Vader did not, oddly enough, press the advantage, "Answer me!"

"She?" Obi-Wan did his best to appear unknowing, but he knew with awful certainty just which 'she' Vader was talking about.

"Leia _Lars_ ," the last name was spat out with sincere contempt. "Do not take me for a fool, old man. I know the Lars family on Tatooine. I know who Owen Lars' stepmother was. Why is it that a girl, not more than twenty, from _Tatooine_ , with the surname Lars, and a great connection with the Force appeared on the same ship that _you_ came on?"

"I do not know who you are talking about." _**-Leia! Go,**_ **now** _ **!-**_

_**-But, Uncle Obi!-** _

_**-No questions. Get on that ship, and leave this infernal station. I will keep their attention for as long as possible.-** _

_**-What about you!?-** _

_**-It is my time, little Leia. I am grateful that I had as long with you as I did.-** _

_**-No!-** _

_**-** _ **Yes** _**. Get those plans to the Rebels. Blow up this station. This is the only way.-** _

Obi-Wan turned his attention back to the black figure in front of him, saying only, _**-Goodbye, little Leia Skywalker. I know you will make me and your parents proud.**_ -

He raised his lightsaber in an almost salute, clearly leaving himself defenseless. Obi-Wan smiled at Darth Vader, and stated with a challenging glint in his eye, "It's a shame, my former Padawan. You were once among the greatest of us, and now you have fallen to the lowest."

Obi-Wan could feel Anakin's shadow lose control of his temper, and he could hear the _thum_ of the red lightsaber as it was swung at him. He was at peace.

_**-NO!-**_ "NO!"

* * *

_**-This is the only way.-** _

_Wait!_ her mind shouted, but she was too frazzled to actively try to talk to Obi-Wan. Her mouth moved, trying to say words that would not form. _No; don't do this; don't leave me; I can't do this on my own; I already lost Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, I can't lose you too; Who else will I have left if you die too?_

A hand 一 _Luke,_ her mind vaguely supplied 一 grabbed her wrist and began tugging her backwards, overcoming all of her weak struggles to stay where she was in an almost parody of what had happened in the cellbay.

_**-Goodbye, little Leia Skywalker. I know you will make me and your parents proud.-** _

_No._

He was raising his lightsaber now, an almost happy smile on his face.

_Nonononono._

He was saying something that she could not hear to Darth Vader. She could feel Vader's anger reach its peak.

_**Nonononononononono.** _

Vader swung.

_**-NO!-**_ "NO!"

Leia's shriek pierced the air and she lost control, using every single bit of her being in a push that sent all of the Stormtroopers flying and just managing to unbalance Darth Vader enough to give her a split second of time to _grab_ Obi-Wan and pull, dragging him towards her by sheer force of will.

"Holy kriff!" Han's shout was just barely audible through the rush of blood in her ears, and flashes of red were sent flying back and forth throughout the hanger. A stray shot hit something beside the door, and they began to shut in front of Darth Vader's advancing figure.

"Leia!" a blue-clad figure jumped in front of her, catching a well-placed blast on his shoulder. The male hissed in pain, even while he began pushing those behind him back into the ship.

"Come on, kid! We need to go!" Leia tried to move, but her legs had stopped working and she was unable to do more than just sit there. Hands grabbed her arms and pulled her up, tugging her backwards up a ramp and into the relative safety of the _Millennium Falcon_. She was guided to a seat in the main area, voices shouting around her, "We gotta go! Chewie, help me get the _Falcon_ out!"

"Oh, you silly girl," Obi-Wan's voice was affectionate, even while its tone was exasperated, "I told you to go, and let me deal with Vader."

"Hit it!"

There was a slight shift as the _Falcon_ lifted and began turning, even while Leia began arguing with her uncle, "I couldn't do that! I couldn't lose you!"

A surging wave of cold flames and hatred interrupted their conversation, as a deep voice, so different than how it sounded through a vocoder, thundered through Leia's head, _**-WHO ARE YOU!-**_

Leia lost it.

A growl tore past her teeth, so uncharacteristic for the normally cheery woman, and she snarled at the Sith, _**-I am Anakin Skywalker's legacy, Leia Skywalker! -**_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sincerely sorry for missing last Saturday. I had been busy preparing for university, and had totally forgotten the date.  
> Whelp, this might be my favourite chapter that I have written so far :)  
> What did you guys think? Favourite parts, least favourite parts, things I should work on?  
> By the way, considering getting a tumblr, should I?  
> This is the second to last chapter before you guys are caught up to the ff.net version, yaay! (on the other hand, that will mean that you guys will have to put up with my terrible work ethic).


	10. Chapter 10

"Sorry," Leia winced at the bloody hole that had been torn into Luke's left shoulder muscle. Obi-Wan knelt beside her, his experienced hands fashioning a makeshift bandage.

Luke tried to move his shoulder 一 probably to shrug as if it's nothing, " _It's fine. I can't even feel it."_ 一 but gave up when his shoulder spasmed and a groan of pain hissed through his teeth, "It's … not bad."

Leia couldn't help her eye roll as she pressed down firmly on the muscle, trying to slow the bleeding, "Right."

"Here," Obi-Wan moved her hands and began wrapping the wound with the confidence of one experienced in healing. Leia tried to help as best she could, listening to her uncle's pointers and directions, and following them with as much precision as possible.

A series of loud Corellian curses preceded Han's arrival as he almost skidded into the sitting area, "We're not out of this yet. Who's coming?"

The three looked up, and Obi-Wan nudged Leia, urging her to her feet, "She volunteers, Captain."

Han's eyes ran over the clearly injured prince and the Jedi who was aiding him, and then back to Leia; she crossed her arms, defensive, and stiffened when he jerked his head towards the ladder at the end of the hallway.

Slightly peeved about being unable to stay to help take care of Luke 一 _And why wouldn't she? It was because of her that Luke was injured._ 一 Leia waved her stained hands in the Corellian's face, "You _sure_ you want this over your precious scrap-heap?"

An actual pained look came over his face, and he growled, "So long as you clean it up after."

Leia snickered and followed Han, clambering down the ladder while he climbed up. At the bottom, there was a gunner's seat, and she sat at the controls, familiarizing herself with them as best she could in the few seconds she had. She tested the movement of the seat and was pleased at the easy response.

"You in, kid?" Han's voice came through a headset hanging from a hook fastened to the wall, causing Leia to jump before fumbling to put it on.

"Here they come!" Luke's voice, breathless and mildly irritated, rang through the comm as the first of the TIE fighters came into view.

A fighter zipped by, its guns blazing, aiming nowhere in particular. Leia spun after it, letting loose her own blaster bolts, but over shot.

"Dammit," she cursed before shaking herself out of distraction and focusing on the TIE buzzing past. Red lit up the white-speckled space and shot towards the H-shaped fighter. It tried to spiral into a dodge, but one of the blasts hit its left wing and sent it careening off into space, where Leia finished it off with several more shots.

"Ha!" A laugh exploded out of her, "I got one!" She turned away from the window to flash a smile up at Han.

"Great, kid! Now don't get cocky."

Another TIE flew directly at her, and Leia jerked around in her seat as she tried to hit it.

An explosion lit up the space just above the underside of the _Falcon_ , and a shout of satisfaction sounded over the comm, "One more down!"

Leia grinned, and parroted his earlier words at her, "Don't get cocky."

"Har har, kid."

* * *

_**-I am Anakin Skywalker's legacy.-** _

Black boots paced down the halls, unrelenting in their furious pace. Officers and Stormtroopers alike all but pressing themselves against the walls in an attempt to stay as far away as possible from the suddenly more intimidating black figure.

_**-Leia Skywalker!-** _

"Tarkin," there was no evidence of mental turmoil in his voice, only the mocking derision that permeated every word ever spoken to the Grand Moff.

Tarkin nodded, too focused on the situation at hand to reply in his typically cutting fashion, "Are they away?"

"They have just completed the jump to hyperspace."

Tarkin's eyes flickered to a series of numbers flickering on the upper-right of the main monitor of the control room, the digits changing faster than a human's eye could follow as they tracked the coordinates of the frigate that the Prince had escaped on, "You're sure the beacon is secure, Vader? It would be a shame if they were to discover it on account of your infamous Jedi-slaying abilities faltering at the might of an old man."

" _It's a shame, my former Padawan. You were once among the greatest of us, and now you have fallen to the lowest."_

_Anger. Hate. Fire. All-consuming._ It's your fault! _his mind screamed, egged on by the Dark Side,_ It's because of you that I am trapped, that I lost everything, that I have nothing left!

_He gave in, all of his rage channeled into a single strike that would cut straight through the Jedi's torso, bisecting him cleanly in two. Kenobi should be thankful for the quick death._

" _NO!"_ _ **-NO!-**_ _the terrified scream rang through the hanger and was echoed through the Force, and a clumsy attempt at a Force push surged towards him, battering through all who stood in its path with ease and hitting him with enough power to shove through his defences despite the obvious inexperience of the girl who did it._

_Vader stumbled, lightsaber flying off course by the sudden attack, even though he never lost sight of his foe. The look on Kenobi's face was a familiar one, exasperated set to the mouth and a wry … something_ _一_ Fondness _, a voice that sounded similar to that of a boy long dead whispered in a distant and deep part of his mind before being crushed ruthlessly_ _一_ _in his eyes. His eyebrow twitched, and Kenobi was pulled away, yanked sideways through the air towards the white figure of a woman_ _一_ PadmeAmidalaLeiaLarsPadmeNabarrieLeia... _一_ _with her arm stretched out towards him._

Vader's hands twitched, the only outward sign of the murderous thoughts burning in his soul, "An old man who only managed to escape on account of pure luck. Rest assured that that luck would not be afforded to any other _old men_."

Tarkin did not deign to acknowledge the obvious threat with words, a single refined sniff making his feelings on it clear, "I am taking a rather large risk for this, Vader. For your sake, you had better hope that this work."

Vader turned away, his patience exhausted to its absolute limits, and began walking out of the command room. Tarkin's voice sounded behind him, an indecipherable change to it, "That girl, she was the one found on the freighter before. Who is she?"

_They were escaping; Leia Lars stumbling backwards up the ramp of the freighter, clearly having drained all of her strength, as she leaned heavily on Kenobi, who was also supporting Luke Organa, injured from taking a blast to the shoulder in place of the woman._

_Vader reached out with both hands, one pushing downwards to force the blast doors to remain open for him to step through, the other outstretched and grasping towards the ship, straining to keep it from taking flight. Just before he managed to get a firm hold, a shield covered it, deflecting and withstanding the pull with a familiar ease._

_He exploded, rage and despe-_ frustration _一_ _A Sith does not feel desperation_ _一_ _coursing through his veins and burning him alive as he once had twenty years ago. He focused on the woman's presence in the ship, its radiant light all but singing to him, and thundered,_ _ **-WHO ARE YOU!-**_

His control strained against the sudden increase of murderous irritation and Vader faced the contemptible man again, briefly noting how easily the fire inside him flared up at the mention of the girl. Tarkin's back was to him, his posture indicating his perceived superiority over a Lord of the Sith, attention apparently turned back to the main monitor which was playing several scenes from security footage of the girl in question 一 her supposed capture, a badly captured video of her escape from the cell bays, brief clips of her and her companions running through hallways, and a looped recording of her outburst in the hanger.

Tarkin continued, not acknowledging Vader having remained in the room, but directing the statement at him nonetheless, "She looks very familiar, wouldn't you agree? Perhaps a hidden child of one of the Jedi…?" His voice trailed off suggestively.

_Her mind was in a state of turmoil, turbulent emotions_ _一_ _terror, exhaustion, fury, all-encompassing relief_ _一_ _manifesting as a silent and wordless scream. The scream cut off as she registered his voice, confusion replacing it. The bewilderment only lasted for an instant and a snarl_ _一_ _anger … it didn't suit her_ _一_ _answered him._

Had he been several years younger 一 in a different situation, a different time, someone who was not dead 一 his answer would have been a derisive snort combined with several inelegant insults. As it was, Vader merely looked at the 一 _fool, idiot, pompous ass, sleemo_ 一 man, and answered, "There are many blonde-haired and blue-eyed female humans in the galaxy. No doubt your aging eyes and mind must have mistaken her for one of them."

Determined to ignore any more remarks, Vader left, considerably more interested in preparing for the inevitable Rebel attack.

_**-I am Anakin Skywalker's legacy. Leia Skywalker!-** _

* * *

Leia yanked off her headset, a proud flush climbing her cheeks. She spun out of the chair, her crows of delight echoed by Han, and clambered up the ladder. Reaching the top, she chased after Han as he made a beeline for the cockpit, stopping only to help a flustered Threepio out of some wire he'd managed to get himself entangled in.

She passed by Luke who was on his way out, clutching at his shoulder where blood had begun to soak through the bandages. "Your friend is the epitome of a mercenary," he said to Leia, a disappointed set to his face as he carefully walked past.

Obi-Wan followed him, shaking his head with an amused look in his eye. "Reckless," he commented to Leia. "He refused to sit still long enough to let me finish fixing that shoulder of his."

Leia shrugged helplessly and made to continue her way into the cockpit, but was stopped by a gentle hand on her wrist. She looked back at Obi-Wan, confused until he asked, "Are you alright?"

_BlackHelmetRaspingBreathingChokingGaspingFading_ _一 "_ _Ben's just a crazy old man! Please_ _一_ _!"_ _一_ _ExplosionConsumingFireRunningRunningCan'tBreatheWarmSmilesColdHisses_ _一_ _**-Goodbye, little Leia Skywalker. I know you will make me and your parents proud.-** _ _一_ _-_ _**NO!-** _

"Yeah," Leia did her best to smile, jubilation from the successful getaway evaporating as quickly as water in the hot Tatooine suns, "I'm fine."

She knew he didn't believe her, even without seeing the eyebrow that inched just a little bit higher at her attempt, but her uncle didn't push her, knowing that she wasn't prepared to talk about it. Even though the look on his face said that they definitely would talk about it soon.

She gave him a weak smile and continued on to her destination, shutting away the screaming voices in her head until she was in a safe place. She walked into the small room, her arrival heralded by the muttered swearing of Han Solo as he fiddled with the controls on the panel.

" … kriffing troopers … just _had_ to mess around … if I ever find the one that did this … "

Leia dropped into the co-pilot chair, "You'll rip their intestines out and then launch the body out of the nearest airlock?"

Han didn't miss a beat, "Sounds about right." His eyes flickered over to her before moving back to the buttons in front of him, "How you holding up, kid?"

Leia shrugged, "We got out, didn't we?"

"And according to your prince, it was only because they wanted to," Han snorted, making his opinion of Luke's suspicions clear.

Leia's mouth twisted, her question more of a statement, "He thinks that we're leading the Empire straight to the Rebellion?"

"Well," Han said, " _if_ we are, at least we're giving them the perfect opportunity to use those all-important plans His Highnessness was raving on about."

Leia sank further back into the seat, "Do you think that Luke is right?"

Han glanced over at her again, taking note of the shadow of fear in her eyes and the way her hands twitched upwards instinctively, and felt a surge of unfamiliar protectiveness, "I don't know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody!  
> I am so sorry that it took so long for me to post this chapter. In my defense, university sucks. I have nothing more to say.
> 
> So could you guys please tell me what you thought, what was bad, what was good? (constructive criticism please!) I am aware that this isn't the best chapter that I've every posted in my life, but I needed to get it out, and it wasn't going to be getting any better :3  
> I have been having a tough time trying to write the next chapter, and am dearly in need of motivation to break past the writer's block :P Feed the writer! She doesn't bite!


	11. Before the Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is dedicated to the Rogue One team, who made an absolutely incredible story. Thank you.

“It’s … ” there were no words that Leia could think of to describe her awe of Yavin IV. The entire surface of the moon was covered by crumbling ruins that were half buried by massive overgrowths of … trees — if she remembered Uncle Obi’s lessons correctly — making a motley of green — _green!_ — and brown, “ … _beautiful_.”

Static crackled on the dashboard, “Unidentified ship, you have ventured into a restricted zone. You have 2 minutes to leave the system.”

“Shit,” Leia said. “Do you think that we're supposed to say some super-secret Rebel code or something?”

A hand reached around her and Chewie to press the button to activate the comm-link and, ignoring Han’s indignant “Hey!”, Luke said, “Rebel base, this is Prince Luke Organa of—” here Luke’s voice wavered almost imperceptibly, “Alderaan. Please allow us to land.”

The comm was silent for a few seconds, giving Leia ample time to imagine a dumbfounded and gaping Rebel soldier staring at a comm-station. The sound of a cough filtered through and an older male’s voice, rougher and more weary, followed, “Prince Luke, is that you?”

A minor amount of tension in Luke’s frame bled out at the question, and he answered, “Yes, General Dodonna. Might my crew and I have permission to land?”

It didn’t even take a second for the reply, “Of course, Prince. But—” General Dodonna paused, “you and the crew of the spacecraft you are on will need to submit to a brief inspection.”

Luke, clearly prepared for the General’s response, sighed faintly, “I had hoped that we would have been able to avoid this, but I am well aware of the need for security.”

“Very good, Your Highness, you have permission to land.”

Luke leaned back, ignoring Han’s glare and hissed “Don't you _ever_ do that again!” like the royalty he was.

* * *

“General Kenobi,” the awe on the old man’s face as he bowed was almost hilarious, “it is truly an honour.”

Obi-Wan bowed back, deep and respectful, the way that he had taught Leia, “The honour is mine, General Dodonna. Although I am merely a Jedi, and no longer a General.”

A quick glance behind him had Leia hastening to copy Obi-Wan, hiding her smirk behind her hair as much as possible before getting it under control, “This is my apprentice, Leia Skywalker.”

Leia straightened up again, catching the end of the curious look that the general shot at her. He said nothing however, instead refocusing on the person standing beside her. A grin, looking almost out of place, broke out on his face and he stepped forward, grasping Luke by his forearms, and pulled him into a rough hug, letting go only when Luke let out a soft grunt of pain. Luke didn't allow anyone to focus on his shoulder, instead greeting the old man with an almost gentle, “Hello General.”

“You’re safe,” here the general’s voice almost broke. “When we’d heard about Alderaan … ”

Pain flashed through Luke’s eyes — _not for the first time_ — but he didn’t allow any more than that. He just stood stiffer, minding his injured side only slightly, and said, “There is no time for that now. The Imperials are coming. R2-D2—” he gestured to R2, “has the technical plans of the Death Star. We must begin planning immediately.”

Dodonna said nothing and, with a both a proud and sad glint in his eye, began leading the group away. Leia was giggling at the frustrated argument between Han and a Rebel officer — “What do you mean, there’s a tracking device on board?!” — when she stopped, a grin splitting her face at the sight of the familiar face just in front of her.

“Biggs!” The name burst out of her and she leapt forward, body almost parallel with the ground, catching the man in a bone-crushing hug. He hugged her back, grasping her close and holding on tightly.

“I’d heard what happened,” he whispered to her. “Leia, I am so, so sorry…”

Leia blinked back tears — _It’s all my fault_ — and said, “I am too.”

Biggs smiled sadly, and, in a clear effort to steer the conversation onto a happier route, said “You wanna look around?”

Leia looked over to where Obi-Wan was waiting patiently. At her pleading look, he rolled his eyes good-naturedly and made a shooing gesture. Leia turned back to Biggs, who had followed her gaze and had started to straighten respectfully for Leia’s adoptive uncle. She pushed him, just a little impatiently, “Come on!”

* * *

“And this is the hangar,” Biggs said, leading her into the massive room.

It was _spectacular_. Dozens upon dozens of ships all parked in rows and rows as far as Leia could see. She reverently walked up to a BTL Y-Wing, hand stretched out almost reverently towards it, before hearing Biggs’ snort. She rolled her eyes at him, and went back to staring at the beautiful machines all laid out in front of her. A particular ship caught her eye, and she drew closer to the red and white painted exterior.

“Gorgeous,” Leia stated, eyes shining as she stared at the T-65B X-Wing Starfighter. “What I would give to be able to take her apart…”

Biggs chuckled, well used to Leia’s mechanic tendencies, “She’s yours, if you manage to pass the test.”

Leia whirled around, “Really? Really, really?” At Bigg’s amused grin, she nodded, chin almost touching her chest during the downward motion, “Where do I start?”

* * *

Leia pulled back, completely relaxed as she drew her fighter into a tight flip that put her easily into the perfect place to take out the incoming TIE fighter. Crowing with delight, she pulled the trigger and completed the exercise.

“Good job, Skywalker,” a voice came over the intercom.

The entrance to the test cockpit opened, and a bright face peered down at her. “Good job, Leia,” Biggs said as he helped her out of the testing station.

Leia mock pouted at him even while she tried to smile radiantly at every person who patted her on the back as they passed by, “Only a ‘good job?’ Ouch, Biggs.”

Biggs snorted at her expression, “I’ve seen better; hells, I’ve _done_ better.”

Leia gasped in fake outrage, “How _dare you!_ We both know that I could beat you at flying with both hands tied behind my back, just using my chin to steer!”

A sudden burst of laughter interrupted Biggs’ retort, and the pair turned simultaneously to see another man dressed in a suit similar to Biggs’ clinging to the side of a different X-Wing for dear life as he coughed and spluttered his way through an epic bout of mirth. Stumbling his way up to the two, he cleared his throat and choked out one last laugh, putting a hand on Biggs’ shoulder, “She’s got you there, newbie.”

“Shove off, Wedge.”

The so-called ‘Wedge’ ignored the comment and grinned at Leia, “Wedge Antilles, Miss Skywalker. Your run through the sims was one of the best we’ve had in ages.”

Leia matched his expression, and held out her right hand for him to shake, “Thank you, Wedge, and please, it’s just ‘Leia.’”

Wedge shook her hand with a wink, and Biggs coughed from his position beside Leia, “You over here for a reason, Antilles?”

Wedge sobered up immediately, “Suit up, it’s time.”

* * *

The room being used for the debriefing was a sterile white, with no adornments on the walls save for a single video screen at the front, and was just large enough for all of the pilots and the Rebel command to fit comfortably. Leia had been guided towards the back by Biggs, and Wedge sprawled himself in a chair in the row in front of them.

“... heavily shielded, and carries a firepower greater than half the star fleet.” General Dodonna was saying to the room of pilots. Leia shifted uncomfortably from where she sat sandwiched in between Biggs and an older pilot with greying hair that she didn’t know. She stared at Luke from across the room, only partially paying attention to the General’s speech, trying to decide how much the discussions of the Death Star had affected him, but the prince kept his face in a smooth and unreadable mask.

Biggs nudged her, and she zoned back in to hear the end of General Dodonna saying, “ … only a precise hit will set off a chain reaction.”

Wedge scoffed from his position in front of Leia and Biggs and said none-too-quietly, “That’s impossible, even for a computer.”

Leia leaned forward to reply, “No it isn’t; the second you say anything is impossible, you give up your chance to make it happen.”

Biggs nudged Leia again, harder this time, just in time for the two to catch, “Then man your ships, and may the Force be with you.”

* * *

“One sec,” Leia said to Biggs as she caught sight of Han and Chewie, loading boxes upon boxes into the _Millennium Falcon_.

She walked up to the pair and stopped, expression turning decidedly unimpressed once Han caught her eye and quickly looked away, “So that’s it? You get paid, and you’re leaving?”

Chewie moaned softly, but continued on with his work. Han didn’t even deign to glance away from his work again, “Yeah, sounds about right.”

“Come on. You’ve seen what we’re up against,” Leia said, trying to appeal to his — hopefully existing — nice side. “You’ve seen what will happen when that monstrosity is unleashed on the galaxy!”

Han’s gaze shifted uneasily, but he held his ground, “What good’s a reward if you ain’t around to use it? Besides, attacking that _thing_ isn’t my idea of courage.” He stopped and considered Leia, “Why don’t you come along? You’re good in a scrap.”

Leia shook her head and stepped back, “I’m sorry, Han. But you know I can’t do that. Just … take care of yourself.” Her face hardened as she spat, “I guess that’s what you’re best at, isn’t it?”

Leia stormed off, no particular direction in mind, only to be intercepted by Luke, who only needed to take one look at her to decipher her distress, “Captain Solo needs to follow his own path, Leia. Even you can’t choose it for him.”

Leia looked back to where Han was continuing his work with a stubborn look on his face, “I know. It’s just ... I thought he was a better person than that.”

Luke tilted his head and then said, his smile almost a smirk, “Well, it appears that you’ll just have to pick up his slack. You did spectacularly in the new pilots simulations. Best score ever made. Congratulations, Red Five.”

Leia choked, “What?”

Luke chuckled at her, and gestured to the cheerful little astromech who was sitting beside him, “It’s only fitting that you receive a reward for such a stellar performance.”

Leia’s mouth dropped open, and remained that way for a good ten seconds before she managed to regain the ability to close it, “You’re joking.”

The prince raised one eyebrow and said, “It’s what R2 wants. I, along with 3P0, only request that you keep him in one piece.”

She said nothing, speechless at the sheer enormity of the gift — although R2 would never be merely a gift — that he had bestowed on her. R2 rolled up to her and beeped chirpily, somehow managing to give off the impression that he was smiling at her.

* * *

“Are you sure you can handle this ship?”

Leia opened her mouth, ready to reply with a ‘yes, sir!’ but Biggs jumped in to defend her, “Sir, Leia is _the_ best bush pilot in the Outer Rim territories, and the single best pilot I have ever seen in my life.”

The man looked back at Leia, one eyebrow raised as if to question the statement, Leia nodded determinedly. His face softened slightly, and he clapped Leia on the back, “Then I guess you’ll do.”

Leia relaxed, “Thank you, sir. I’ll do my best.”

“Force be with you, Skywalker.”

“You ready for this?” Biggs asked, his eyes on Leia’s — _Leia’s!_ — X-Wing. “You just— I mean, it … you know.”

Leia faced him, a dozen sentences jumping to place on the tip of her tongue — _“Of course I am! We’re going to blow that Death Star to smithereens and send the Imps running home to cower under their beds!”_ — in response. But she hesitated, the reality of the situation crashing down on her. Steeling herself, Leia said, “I know. But I have to do this.”

_For Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, for Uncle Obi, for my mother and father … for myself._

Plastering on a playful smirk, she added on cheekily, “Why, you scared?”

Biggs didn’t respond the way she wanted him to, “Yes.”

There was nothing that Leia could say in response, so Biggs hugged her and said, “You’re going to tell me all of your new stories when we get back, alright?”

Leia nodded into his shoulder, and upon pulling away, weakly punched him, “Don’t go getting yourself blown up, okay? Force knows that you can’t handle yourself without me holding your hand.”

Biggs mussed up her hair with a fond “Brat,” and then dashed off to where his ship was being made ready. Leia blew out a sharp breath of air, and turned around. She jumped, not expecting to suddenly find herself face to face with Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan shook his head at her shock, but did not comment on it. Instead, he said with a grave tone, “I know that there is no possibility that I will be able to convince you to stay back, so all I ask is that you be careful and to trust in the Force.”

Leia trembled, knowing full well what his unspoken words were. _‘There is no doubt that Darth Vader will be there.’_ She straightened up, tried to smile tremulously, and when her uncle opened his arms, didn’t hesitate to rush into them. She clung to him, temporarily allowing herself to feel the terror of her situation. Obi-Wan grasped her close and said, his words almost a prayer, “The Force will be with you, little Leia.”

Leia drew back, “And with you.”

His face relaxed minutely — although Leia could still see the stress making itself known in every line on his face — and then stepped back to make way for the engineers and pilots rushing back and forth. He raised his hand in a silent gesture of support, and Leia waved back. Something hit her knee and she looked down at R2, who had followed her through the entirely of her winding route to get ready. She placed her hand on his domed head, and looked around at all of the people rushing around, preparing to risk their all on nothing more than a single strand of a hope.

**_-Well--_ ** something — someone, a group of someones, all with different accents and voices — said, **_-rebellions are built on hope.-_ **

“Hang on tight, R2, you've got to come back.” Leia was drawn out of her thoughts by the sounds of a certain protocol droid, “You wouldn't want my life to get boring now, would you?”

R2 whistled cheerfully at his counterpart and Leia laughed, “Don't worry, 3P0. I'll take care of him.”

“Thank you, Mistress Leia.”

R2 beeped at the two of them, his message clear enough that Leia didn’t need anyone to translate for her, and caused 3P0 to start admonishing him even as the astromech was lifted into his place in the X-Wing. Leia square her shoulders, took a breath, and climbed the ladder to the cockpit. She settled down and strapped in, and then began running her fingers over the controls continuously to make sure she knew what they were.

One of the two engineers setting up the ship leaned in and asked, “This astromech is a bit beat up, you need a new one?”

Leia snorted unintentionally, “Never. This little guy is a gift from a friend.”

“Ok then.”

“Stand by … stand by …” The words came over both the comm in Leia’s helmet and the intercom, and the engineers quickly finished up the last of the checks. Leia sat back and closed her eyes, focusing in on the Force. Piloting was fun, it was what she was without a doubt good at. She could do this.

Her eyes snapped open, just in time to see the signal to lift off.

**_-Be one with the Force, and the Force will be with you.-_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I have some explaining to do. I have figured out something: the longer I wait to finish a chapter, the less happy I am with it. So, I promise that I will post the next one as soon as possible. Luckily, I have already got an outline finished for it, and am cackling evilly over it as I simultaneously write this. Mwahhaha. Don't worry, I am dedicating the entirety of tomorrow to writing it. There's a good chance that I am going to be utterly sick of the Battle of Yavin by the time I am through tomorrow.
> 
> Oh well. C'est la vie.
> 
> Just letting you guys know, I now have a Tumblr in case you guys want to stalk me. You can find me at readaholic19.tumblr.com


	12. Chapter 11 - The Sound of Cannons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. This one's for you guys.

"All wings report in," came the sound off from Red Leader.

"Red 10 standing by."

"Red 7 standing by."

"Red 3 standing by," Biggs reported over the comm.

"Red 6 standing by."

"Red 9 standing by."

"Red 2 standing by," Wedge.

"Red 11 standing by."

"Red 5 standing by," Leia finished with R2 whistling excitedly in the background.

"Lock S-foils in attack positions." Leia flipped the switch to open her wings and glanced to the right, where Biggs' fighter was flying alongside hers. She saw Biggs flash a thumbs up through his small window, and sent one back. She checked over her controls one last time, and jumped a bit when her ship began shuddering slightly. "We're passing through their magnetic field, switch your deflectors on. Double front!"

The Death Star loomed, growing bigger and bigger until it was all that filled the viewport, the guns and defense towers on the surface making themselves apparent. Wedge let out a low whistle through the channel, "Look at the _size_ of that thing."

Red Leader snorted and said, "Cut the chatter, Red 2. Accelerate to attack speed."

Leia hit the throttle, easily keeping up with the acceleration of the other fighters, and R2 let out several whistles and beeps at the suddenness of it. She moved into her position at the back of the v shape that the other X-Wings formed and waited for the signal.

"This is it!" As one, the X-Wings dove for the surface of the battle station and the Y-Wings peeled off to go after the exhaust port.

_Let's do this._

* * *

Darth Vader breathed in, breathed out. There it — _she_ — was. The girl that rivalled a star in her brightness. Kenobi's presence was suspiciously absent, for Vader could remember him refusing to leave him alone when Anakin was still alive, but that was unimportant. The sole person of importance in this fight was her.

He turned on his heel and strode off towards the hanger, stopping only when an Imperial officer ran across his path, "We've counted thirty Rebel ships, Lord Vader. But they're so small, they're evading our turbo lasers."

Vader turned away, forcing to officer to start speed walking to keep up, "Focus on disabling the fighters. I want as many pilots possible captured and interrogated about possible bases and future plans."

_It is time._

* * *

"Heavy fire, boss. Twenty degrees!"

"I see it, stay low!"

Leia spun her fighter into a twirl, "This is Red 5; I'm going in," and then flipped to face the Death Star head on. She pulled up, just in time to barely miss crashing into the surface, and sped up, lasers streaking from the tips of her X-Wing and impacting on the towers just raised off the sphere. A fireball bloomed into place just in front of her, and Leia, despite knowing that she wouldn't make it, yanked back on her controls.

"Leia, pull up!" Came Biggs' frantic voice on her control panel.

Leia hit the throttle, and rushed through the explosion. She emerged from the other side, the wings of her fighter slightly scorched, and breathed a sigh of relief, "You ok, R2?"

A whistle for confirmation, and Leia smiled, "Good."

"Hey, you alright?"

She laughed, "Got a little bit cooked, but I'm fine."

"She laughs," Biggs muttered. "Flies through a kriffing fireball, and she laughs."

Leia giggled, but shuddered at the feeling of dark flames entering the fight. She clamped down on her abilities, letting only just a trickle of her presence leak through. With any luck, with Vader knowing that she was there but not knowing which one she was would protect the fighters. Or it would just make him — _it_ — kill them faster.

Biggs noticed, "You good?"

Leia shook herself. If there was one thing that she was confident in, it was her ability to pilot, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thought I saw something. Come on!"

The two fighters, previously flying closer together as Biggs worried over Leia, peeled off from each other, each heading towards a separate defense tower on the Death Star.

* * *

Flying after the Y-Wings in the trench, Darth Vader growled from behind his helmet, ignoring the pain from the strained vocal cords. The girl, despite being as untrained as she was, noticed him, and managed to draw back on her presence just enough to make him uncertain as to where she was. Were it not for the insistence of the Emperor that he protect the station at all costs, he would allow the bombers to continue on their way, and keep searching for Skywalker's so-called 'legacy.'

As it was, Vader could be certain that Leia Skywalker was most definitely not any of the three pilots ahead of him. The lead pilot was panicking, it was obvious from the instability of their fighter. _No proper Skywalker would ever allow themselves to pilot so terribly. It would be a mercy to kill this fool._ And so, Darth Vader went after them first, disabling their wings to force them to crash against the surface of the Death Star. He considered the left ship. _They choose to leave a battle the second it turns difficult? Inarguably no Skywalker._ A second later, the engines and the astromech of the fighter were taken out, leaving the pilot stranded in space. Finally, Vader looked at the last ship left. _No Skywalker would ever fly in a bomber._ This time, he aimed right for the cockpit, and put the pilot out of their bomber-flying misery. Pulling up and out of the trench, his two wingmen following him with the diligence and ease expected of their stations, Vader tapped the dashboard once before making a call to the captain of the _Devastator_.

"Yes, Lord Vader?" was the man's prompt reply.

"There are several Rebels awaiting imprisonment. Begin making preparations to apprehend them immediately."

"I shall begin at once, Lord Vader."

_**-I shall find you soon, Leia Skywalker.-** _

* * *

_**-I shall find you soon, Leia Skywalker.-** _

Leia shivered despite the sweat running down her back and the heat of the cockpit. Vader's voice in the Force sounded so different from how it did outside of it.

"You got this, Red 5?"

"Yes sir!" Leia snapped back to attention just in time to spin a loop around a _really big_ gun turret — she was certain that after she got through this battle, she would have a skewed sense of size — sticking out of the Death Star. She twirled her fighter up and flipped it, the lasers shooting out of the tips of her wings easily destroying the turret.

"Red 5, take Red 2 and 3 and wait for my signal to set up for your attack run!"

"I copy, Red Leader."

She pulled back, shooting up and away from the station. Biggs and Wedge joined her, the three of them weaving back and forth to dodge the blasts.

Leia sat back, the fingers of her left hand anxiously drumming across the dashboard of her X-Wing. R2 let out a series of beeps and whistles, and the small screen to Leia's right translated them. She released the breath she didn't even know that she was holding and said, "Thanks, R2."

"You ready for this, Leia?" Biggs said quietly.

The 'Ha!' that burst out of her sounded almost hysterical, even to her, "Yep! You?"

"Hah, naturally."

"It's away!" Red Leader's jubilant cry echoed through the channel, and brought Leia back to the battle just in time to see a proton torpedo impact against the surface of the station, creating a massive explosion. Red Leader groaned into the comm, "Negative; it didn't go in. Red 5, this is Red Leader."

Leia grimaced slightly as she observed the trench, "I copy, sir."

"It's your turn. I'll hold the TIEs off for as long as I can."

"Yessir! Come on, boys!"

* * *

His sense of the star was … _fainter_ than before. He stared piercingly at the X-Wing trying very obviously to distract him and his wingmen. While good, he grudgingly acquiesced, the pilot in control of the X-Wing played it too … _safe_ to be a Skywalker. As it was, their safe flying was their downfall, a dodge from a blast Vader's left wingman had shot put them directly into the path of his firing range, easily enabling the Sith Lord to take out their engines, setting them adrift.

He commed the _Devastator_ , "You are free to begin detaining the Rebels."

"Yes, Lord Vader."

As one, Vader and his wingmen turned back to the trench.

* * *

Tearing through the trench, Leia didn't have any time to panic the feeling of dark flames came rushing after them. Instead, she teased a bit more speed out of the fighter, and barked, "Come on, guys. You gotta keep up!" at Biggs and Wedge.

When Wedge took a hit to the wing, Leia snapped, "You can't do any good back there! Get clear!"

"Sorry!"

An ominous feeling came over her, and she yelled into the comm, "Biggs, get out of there!" just as he let out a shout, "Shit!"

"What!"

"Never mind me, Leia. Keep going!"

Leia gritted her teeth, "Wedge, help him if you can. I'll destroy this battle station if it's the last thing I do!"

* * *

Vader smirked, disregarding the pain of his scarred facial muscles. The pilot who he had just shot down was _important_ to the star. Well then.

"Captain. A Rebel pilot has just been taken care of. I trust you to retrieve him before all others."

"Of course, my lord."

Vader sped after the girl, accelerating until he was almost right behind her. A shot flew past his TIE at her fighter, forcing both him and her to dip downwards slightly to avoid it.

Vader snarled, his concentration broken by the blast. Only just managing to stop his anger from doing something drastic taking over, he growled into the comm, "Leave. Take care of any other Rebel pilots, and ensure that the Rebel who was just shot down is taken aboard the _Devastator_."

"Yessir!"

* * *

Leia leaned forward, her eyes peering through the targeting computer to the trench in front of her. "Come on," she muttered at the numbers counting down for her. "I would really appreciate it if you would hurry up!"

_**-Be one with the Force, and the Force will be with you.-** _

Leia jerked, and her fighter followed suit, wavering a little. She hesitated, but pressed the button to retract the camera. Her right hand tensed around the controls.

"Red 5, you've switched off your targeting computer; what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm alright!"

* * *

Vader hissed, the sound amplified and distorted by his vocoder. The Force was moving strongly around the X-Wing in front of him, ebbing and flowing at a rapid pace. If he was going to take Leia Skywalker, it would be best to do it quickly.

Focusing on the engines just behind the astromech droid, Darth Vader took a deep breath, checked his sights one last time, and …

* * *

R2 whistled, clearly cheerful about something, the dark flames pressing in on her went spiralling off, and she vaguely heard a "Come on kid! Blow this thing!", but Leia didn't dare let it break her focus. She breathed in, breathed out, centered herself in the Force, and, when she felt an almost shock from it, fired off two rounds of proton torpedos. She shot over the opening, only just managing to catch the brief instant in which they both — _both!_ — went in.

"I got it!" she cheered, and heard answering cheers over her comm.

"Let's go!" Han — _Han?_ — crowed through her helmet, and as one, the remaining Rebel ships turned for Yavin 4.

Leia's smile split her face, and despite it hurting, she was too happy to care, and as the Death Star exploded behind them, she laughed, listening to all of the others yelling in jubilation. But her eyebrows creased, realizing that she couldn't hear a familiar voice.

"Wedge, where's Biggs?"

His hesitance was telling, and Leia knew, even before he said anything, that something bad had happened, "I'm sorry, Leia. He … got picked up by the Star Destroyer that was picking up all of the downed pilots. There was nothing I could do."

Leia's grin fell off her face, and she felt as if the air had been choked out of her lungs — _again_ , "Oh."

"Wha— shit!"

To Leia's left, a Y-Wing wobbled, and then imploded, its pilot screeching until being cut off. The rest of the Rebels took evasive maneuvers, each one heading in a different direction. Leia chanced a glance backwards. Outlined by the dying light of the now gone Death Star, a single TIE fighter, dark flames all but emitting from it, came roaring at them, Leia specifically, followed closely by a Star Destroyer.

"Shavit," Wedge cursed. "Base 1? We've got a whole kriffin' lot of trouble."

"Trouble?" Leia's voice crawled up several octaves in the space of one word. "I've got both a TIE fighter _and_ a Star Destroyer on my tail?"

"Leia," Luke's voice. "Can you get out of there?"

"I can try."

Leia ramped up on speed, shooting forwards. She twisted and spun, pulling every single acrobatic she could come up with, but the TIE — _Darth Vader_ — doggedly followed her, pressing in on her, growing closer and closer and —

— _He caught her as she and the others tried to run, forcing her into the tractor beam of the Star Destroyer. He_ — _it_ — _went after the rest of the Rebel pilots next, destroying every single one of them. It saved Han for last, seeming to enjoy going after the_ Falcon _._ — _Leia was put in a grey room with no way out. All she could do was wait._ — _Rasping breathing, "Leia_ Lars _. We meet again." Standing up to him, "Nothing you do will break me,_ Sith _." A grating laugh, "Oh, I don't intend to break you,_ Leia Skywalker _. I intend to show you the truth."_ — _Day in, day out, Leia was forced to deal with the constant presence of the Sith. Day in, day out. Not even knowing how much time had passed. "Your Rebel friends are_ gone _. There is nothing for you to fight for." Leia steeled herself, knowing what was to come next. A detailed recount of the Sith's storming of Yavin 4. The death of a prince, only just become a friend; the death of an uncle, precious beyond belief. The death of hope._ — _Biggs was brought in, beaten and bloodied, tossed in like garbage. Leia ran to him, helped him get up, and when the Sith stepped into the room, moved in front of him, determined to protect him. "You are now allowed to move about the ship. He is your prisoner now."_ — " _Why are you doing this?" Beaten, broken, helpless, hopeless. Leia had only one person left in the galaxy. "You are … "_ —

— _She wore black clothes and a black helmet. Two lightsabers hung at her hip, both the same red as blood. Biggs followed behind her, his joy and cheerfulness reduced to a shadow of what they once were._ —

— _She couldn't even recognize herself anymore._ —

Leia's mind went blank, horror, terror and _rage_ all fighting for their place at the forefront of her brain. She hissed, the sound distorted by the sudden closure of her throat, and then _snarled_ , only just hearing the other Rebels and their shouts of shock. She turned on a pinpoint, and barrelled towards the two incoming ships.

"Get out of here!" she barked into the comm, "And get the Alliance out of here while I distract them!"

"Leia — !"

"No, Luke. I have to do this! Be safe for me, _please._ "

"I — may the Force be with you."

"And it had better be with you, if it knows what's good for it."

Spinning past several lasers, she fired off several rounds of her own, cursing at Han who had come back to help, "Get the _kark_ out of here, laserbrain!"

He snorted, derision clear, "And what makes you think I'll do that?"

"Because they at least want me alive! I want, no _need_ you to take care of Luke and my uncle!" When Han didn't initially respond, she added, "Please!"

"Fine. Only until you get back though."

"Promise."

"I promise to look after his Highnessness and the crazy old man until you get back," Han grumbled while Chewie grunted into the comm, making the same promise.

Leia relaxed, even as she shot towards her possible doom, "Thanks guys. Tell them … tell them that I'm sorry."

She hit the throttle, "Come on!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is also known as "The Sound of Canon Crashing Down Around Leia"
> 
> Well, that's it for today :) You guys can expect the epilogue for the first part of The Wings of Butterflies to come soon.
> 
> Just a reminder, you, my lovely readers, can find me at readaholic19 on Tumblr.
> 
> Please rate and review! I love to hear from my lovely readers on how I'm doing and what they think will happen :D
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I'll catch you guys later!


	13. The Runaway

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live! I'm sincerely sorry for the wait. Long story short, 2017 sucked. I'm not gonna bore you with all the details, so let's just get on to the story!

"Come on, come on, come on…" Leia muttered as she forced her fighter into a downwards twist, green streaking past her into the darkness of space. "Come on!"

Leia had no clue how much time had passed. After the 19th close call that involved her frantically dodging away from a well placed laser, she had given up counting the minutes, only allowing herself to focus on the here and now.

Blessed relief came in the form of the words, "Leia, get out of there, we'll see you soon!"

She breathed a sigh of relief,  _they would be fine_ , and shouted, "R2, get us those coordinates and get us out of here!" She pulled up and to the right, curling upwards just past the Star Destroyer, close enough that both R2 and her shields  _shrieked_  at her. Spiralling upwards, she flipped into a loop and shot across the surface of it, just barely avoiding several rounds of fire. And despite all the stress and worry her new situation had dumped on her shoulders, she laughed.

R2 chirped, inquisitive to her laughter, and Leia shook her head, bringing herself out of her delirium.

"Nothing, R2, don't worry about it." She thrust down, throwing the X-Wing into a twisted coil. "Just work on the calculations!"

A distinctly raspberry sounding noise emitted through the comm, followed by several rapid beeps and whistles. Leia huffed out a sigh of relief and made to initiate the hyperdrive, but paused, her hand just resting on the lever, even as she still continued spinning around and through the fire from Vader's TIE fighter and the Star Destroyer.

"Hey, R2?"

A questioning bleep.

"If we jump into hyperspace right now, Darth Vader can probably track us. Right?"

A pause, then R2 confirmed her fears.

Leia breathed in through her nose and nodded, mind made up. "You wouldn't mind taking a little detour, would you?"

R2 chirped, giving off the impression that the droid was laughing.

"Alrighty then," Leia muttered. She hit the comm, connecting to the Rebel command, "Hey, Base 1?"

"Skywalker, what are you doing? You were given the all clear!"

"I can't risk meeting at the rendezvous." Twisting upwards, Darth Vader continuing to doggedly follow her. "I'll find you though! I promise."

Luke's voice, "Leia—!"

"I'm sorry, Luke," she interrupted. "I'll be back!"

A sigh, a different, more familiar voice, "I'm proud of you, little Leia."

Leia smiled, "Thanks, Uncle. You ready, R2?"

At R2's agreement, Leia grinned, fierce and bright, and pulled the lever.

* * *

Very few had ever managed to come close to matching Darth Vader, even temporarily, in the art of flying. Fewer still could hold out long enough to allow their friends even a chance to escape. Irritation burned through him at the thought that he had been, quite possibly, matched. For the first time in many years. Oh yes, for certain they had managed to capture several ships from the Rebels' hurried escape to add to the prisoners from the Rebels' attack on the Death Star.

Staring out at the lines of hyperspace streaking by, Darth Vader,  _the best star pilot in the galaxy_ , contemplated the the possibilities ahead of him. The possibility that he still had family,  _a daughter_ , that had been hidden away from him. The possibility that his master had lied to him. The possibility that he had…  _harmed_  his daughter.

Crushing down the urge to shake his head at the disturbing thought, he turned away from the viewport and began to stride down the walkway. Officers, stormtroopers and other personnel all straightened and saluted him as he passed by, lost in his thoughts. The quick steps and breathless "Lord Vader!" drew him out of his reverie, and his steps slowed to a halt as he turned to face the sweating youth.

The boy squirmed under his gaze and, after a few moments of temporary speechlessness, stuttered out, "You requested an update on the prisoners as soon as possible?"

When Darth Vader did not respond, the officer continued on, "We… we captured 57 rebels, they have been placed in the starboard cells to be interrogated."

Vader immediately turned on his heel, intent on wringing out every bit of information possible from the prisoners and expecting the boy to continue updating him. The sound of booted feet hitting the ground behind him confirmed his expectations, "Not much has been determined from the initial background checks, my lord. A few were flagged several years prior to now as being possible dissenters. One however was listed as having deserted the Imperial Navy several weeks ago. Biggs Darklighter, my Lord, of Tatooine."

Although he did not allow it to outwardly affect him, the name of the accursed planet burned through his being with all the strength of its twin suns.

It would appear that his first prisoner was decided.

* * *

Biggs Darklighter was a relatively young man, likely no more than five years older than Leia Skywalker. He was strapped to an interrogation table, his eyes remaining stalwartly looking up at the ceiling, refusing to look down at the dark shadow in front of him.

Darth Vader wasn't angry. No, he was calm; the flames of Mustafar branded into his soul transformed into icy purpose. He didn't speak, a mind probe idly brushing against Darklighter's mind to test the man's defenses.

Darklighter's throat bobbed as he swallowed and Vader smiled grimly behind the mask. He would break soon. He pushed ever-so-slightly harder, allowing the pilot to feel his presence in his mind.

The captive shuddered, twisting and straining against his restraints, knuckles whitening as his hands balled into fists. His head shook back and forth, trying to shake the presence out of it.

Darth Vader stepped closer, "Leia Skywalker…"

The prisoner flinched and Vader smiled beneath the mask.

He moved forward to allow his hand trailed gently on the man's face, "You know of her… good," he paused before grabbing the man's throat. "Now you'll tell me  _everything_  about her."

* * *

It was an old spaceport, likely one that had been around since the beginning of the Republic. Hundreds of different creatures milled about, each on their own business, passing by the  _Wanted_  holos with barely a backwards glance.

" _Have You Seen This Human?"_  The vocal recording questioned in Basic, the holo being a grainy image of a tanned woman, just past the girl age. What little could be distinguished of the human female was that she had blonde hair and  _maybe_  blue eyes, although it was difficult to tell with the bad quality of the image.

An old blue and white R2 unit made its way through the crowd, pausing temporarily at one of the holos before making on its merry way, whistling cheerfully all the while. It moved past some Stormtroopers interrogating a cluster of civilians and then rolled into an alleyway.

There was a cloaked figure there, hood drawn up to obscure their features. They sat in a cross-legged position, leaning back against the dirty wall with a cracked bowl resting in their lap. The R2 unit moved up to them, beeping softly.

The figure looked up, a small smile appearing in the darkness from their hood. A hand, humanoid and tanned, reached up from its position beside the bowl to stroke the dirty paint of the droid's domed head. The sounds of Stormtroopers moving closer to the alley echoed around them, and the droid moved slightly to obscure its companion.

"What's this here?" The trooper walked up to them seemed to be shorter than the usual type, their voice nearly a high pitched whine even through the vocoder of their helmet.

The eyes underneath the hood glanced up briefly to regard the Stormtrooper, but then moved back to the R2 unit. Their mouth moved slowly, their owner very clearly trying to enunciate clearly through their thick Huttese accent, "Nothing… sir. Am… poor. Droid… pa-passing… by."

The trooper looked down at the beggar and said with disgust lacing their voice, "Get off the streets." They turned away and walked off.

The beggar let out a sigh of relief, reached up to grab onto the droid to pull themselves up. They dusted themselves off, took the little coin that was in the bowl, and strode off in the opposite direction, their steps quick and quiet. The R2 unit rolled after them, occasionally nudging their leg.

The two of them stopped at the edge of the alley, and the taller one took a deep breath, bright blue eyes peering out from under their hood.

"Ok," Leia Skywalker whispered. "Let's do this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, just a quick question guys, would you prefer it if I separated the different sections of the story (ANH, ESB, etc, etc) into different stories under the Life of Butterflies? Or would you like me to keep it all under one story?
> 
> Outline is currently finished for the next chapter, have started to work on it. Hopefully I should be done by Jan. 19th 2018, as that is a special day for me, and I would like to at the very least always update on that day.


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